by Andrew Eichenholz
For the first time in a decade on Monday, Rafael Nadal, the best clay courter and one of the greatest tennis players of all-time, fell out of the top-10 in the ATP World Tour Rankings.
Injuries, lack of confidence, and a new generation growing up. These are all things that have ended one of the great streaks in modern tennis. But, the bigger question is, is it the beginning of the end?
Absolutely not.
In the last year, Nadal has gone 41-14, not a bad record by any means. But, while people jump to wonder whether he will ever retake his throne from Novak Djokovic and company, it is important to actually look at his losses.
Outside of a loss to the relatively unknown Michael Berrer to start his 2015 season, there is really no truly shocking loss on his resumé over the last 52 weeks. Four of the Spaniard’s 14 losses were against top-10 players, two of which coming at the hands of the World No. 1, Djokovic.
Then, there is the enigmatic Fabio Fognini. The man can lose to anybody on any given day, but the road goes both ways. He has proven it by beating Nadal twice on clay, using shot making that only can make fans scratch their heads at the out-of-nowhere losses.
Throw in losses against a couple of dangerous veterans, and that leaves only a handful of shaky defeats. Nick Kyrgios topped Nadal at Wimbledon last year, before more recently taking out the likes of Roger Federer on his way to being widely recognized as one of the tour’s future stars. Borna Coric, who also surprised the lefty, is another star-to-be.
While Nadal’s ranking may have slipped, and will very possibly take another hit come the French Open in a couple week’s time, there is one thing that is hard to argue.
You can never count out a 14-time Grand Slam champion.
Many had the same reaction when Federer, the current World No. 2, fell all the way to eighth in the rankings at the beginning of the 2014 season. Yet, the “Swiss Maestro” has won eight titles since.
It is not hard to look at Djokovic as the king of the tennis world, with a hot Andy Murray, Federer and a group of fresh faces as the favorites at the Grand Slams. There is no question that Nadal is not at his very best.
But, when you win nine times at a single major, and have spent 141 weeks at the top of the world, it is careless for people to say that said player is on the way out. When winning is such a constant throughout their career, there is only one method to say good bye to their career.
That is when Nadal decides that he wants to put away his rackets and never take them out professionally again. At Roland Garros, he will look to make a statement, showing that that moment will not happen anytime soon.
