Rafael Nadal to slump to an alarming 20-year low in ATP Rankings if he doesn’t defend French Open crown

Shahida Jacobs
Rafael Nadal talks to the media
Rafael Nadal disappointed

Rafael Nadal will continue his slide down the ATP Rankings over the next few weeks due to his injury-enforced absence while failure to defend his title at Roland Garros will see him slump outside the top 100.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner has been an ever-present member of the ATP top 100 for the past 20 years but he could see him slump to his lowest position in more than two decades if he fails to play in Paris.

The Spaniard made his top 100 debut in May 2003 when he jumped from 109 in the rankings to 96 and he has been fixed member since then, reaching a career-high of No 1 and spending a total of 209 weeks at the top over the course of his career.

He has also set numerous ranking milestones including spending the most consecutive weeks in the top 10 as he tallied 912 weeks with that record only coming to an end in March this year when he finally left the top 10.

Current state of affairs for Nadal

Back to the present day and Nadal finds himself in 14th place in the ATP Rankings with 2,715 points, but he is set to drop further in the next fortnight as he won’t feature at the Madrid Open due to his ongoing struggles with his hip injury.

Last year he reached the quarter-final of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament so he will drop 180 points when the rankings are updated after the tournament.

It remains to be seen if he will feature at the Italian Open, but he reached the third round in Rome last year so that is another 90 points that will come off his tally if he is unable to compete, leaving him with potentially 2,445 points going into Roland Garros.

That tally will be good enough to remain in the top 20 and it will give him a seeding for his favourite tournament.

If the 14-time Paris champion is unable to defend his French Open crown, then he will drop 2,000 points and be left with 445 points which would put him round about the 130th position in the current rankings.

The points distribution for Roland Garros is as follows:

10 – first round
45 – second round
90 – third round
180 – fourth round
360 – quarter-final
720 – semi-final
1,200 – finalist
2,000 – winner

Of course there is always a chance that he could play in Paris despite no matches on clay under his belt, but he will need to have a decent run in order to stay in the top 100 as Taro Daniel from Japan is currently at No 100 with 587 points, although 600 points are likely a safe bet for the top 100.

If Nadal does enter Roland Garros without playing in Rome, he will need to reach at least the fourth round in order to stay in the top 100.

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