Rafael Nadal Won His 21st Grand Slam Title and Made His Top 10 Debut of ATP Rankings
Rafael Nadal, an 18-year-old Spaniard, first joined the Top 10 on April 25th, leapfrogging from 11th to 7th place. In Barcelona, he now has a total of 12 professional titles. Rafael Nadal has already had a historic year, winning his 21st Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open, breaking a three-way tie for the most Grand Slam titles in tennis history with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
And now, he achieves even another historic milestone: Nadal has now spent 17 years in the Top 10 of the ATP rankings. Despite numerous injuries over the years missed, he won two Australian Opens, three Wimbledons, and four US Opens. He never dropped out of the Top 10 for more than a week.
Rafael Nadal rated No. 4 in the world
This Week: The Most Consecutive Weeks in ATP Rankings History
> Rafael Nadal – 866 weeks
> Pete Sampras – 789 weeks
> Ivan Lendl – 741 weeks
> Roger Federer – 619 weeks
> Jimmy Connors – 565 weeks
Since November 2020, when he broke Jimmy Connors’ previous record of a little over 15 years, he has held the record for the longest Top 10 streak in ATP rankings ever. Rafael Nadal’s Top 10 streak is also showing no indications of ending very soon. Based on what he’s already accomplishing in 2022.
He’s already amassed a tour-leading 3,350 ranking points in 2022, which would have been enough to put him in the year-end Top 10 in each of the previous seven years (he’d have been No. 11 in 2014 with that many).
To put Rafael Nadal’s 17 years in the Top 10 in perspective, consider that when his run began. Emma Raducanu was two years old, Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff were one year old. And YouTube was only two months old, and Twitter didn’t even exist.
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