That is why Rafael Nadal will be number 1 in the world on November 4th
After his surprising end in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters tournament, Novak Djokovic has to hand over the world rankings leadership to Rafael Nadal on November 4th.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 12, 2019, 06:27 pm
For Novak Djokovic, a great run ended on Friday: he won seven matches and 15 sets in a row after the comeback and problems on the left shoulder. Then Stefanos Tsitsipas turned up, played "in the zone" and won.
Djokovics Aus also means one thing: Rafael Nadal will be world number one on November 4th! And that, even until then he won't play or get any points!
Djokovic currently has 10,365 points , Nadal 9,225 points . Let's take a look at Djokovic: Because he will lose points in the coming weeks. Last year he won in Shanghai, which earned him 1,000 points. There are only 180 for the quarter-finals this year. According to the 52-week accounting system in the world rankings, he will only have 9,545 points next Monday.
The "Djoker" has announced the next tournament as the Paris Masters, which starts on October 28th. Again, there are 1,000 world ranking points for the winner. Djokovic reached the final in Paris last year (where he lost to Karen Khachanov), taking 600 points. In the event of a win, he could gain 400 points. This would mean a theoretical 9,945 points on the account.
It depends on the London points
But: On this day, the Monday after the Paris Masters (this year November 4th), the points from the ATP Finals 2018 already fall out of the ranking. Because the ATP ranking and the ATP Race, the annual ranking for the qualification for the ATP Finals, should be identical before the start for the top 8. Djokovic, as a finalist (he lost in the final against Alexander Zverev), got 1,000 points last year. That means: Djokovic stands at 8,945 points on November 4th at best.
And Nadal ? He didn't contest a tournament in 2018 after the US Open due to injuries , so he will surely keep his 9,225 points (he could even win some in Paris). And thus have more points than Djokovic on November 4th.
Djokovic will abdicate on November 4 after a total of 275 weeks as the first in the world rankings and Nadal will begin his 197th week at the top of the world rankings. Record world rankings first is Roger Federer at 310 weeks.
Could Djokovic still compete in Vienna or Basel?
In theory, Djokovic could of course still accept a wildcard for the ATP tournaments in Vienna or Basel (both from October 21). Here there would be 500 points for a win. But he probably won't do that, because this week he's scheduled for an exhibition fight against Nadal in Kazakhstan - on October 24th.
Only if Nadal should continue to be injured and the exhibition fight bursts could anything change. The Spaniard was spotted again in training a few days ago.