Mover Of The Week: Nadal
This week, I am using my executive power to give the mover of the week honors to Rafael Nadal, even though Kevin Anderson had the biggest change in his ranking. Why? I recently wrote about Anderson and his ranking was expected to drop following surgery.
Abdominal Injury May Derail Nadal
Nadal has played second fiddle to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic; even when he was number one, I never quite got the sense that he gained the respect of the people; however, his fans were happy for him. Nadal could end the year as the number one ranked player, but that is in jeopardy following his abdominal injury in Paris (which makes it highly unlikely that he will be competing in the Nitto ATP Finals due to start in six days).
Nadal’s History Of Injuries
Every Nadal fan knows his history of chronic knee problems and as he has gotten older, those knees have continued to be a problem, plus a few other injuries have cropped up to derail him time and again (both wrists, appendix, left foot, elbow, left ankle, and torn stomach muscle). I am quite happy he is back at number one but saddened that once again, injury may derail his plans. I hope not!
ATP & WTA Top 100 Ranking Changes
NAME | SPOTS MOVED | NEW RANKING |
Kevin Anderson (RSA) | DOWN 46 | 91 |
Corentin Moutet (FRA) | UP 16 | 81 |
Marin Cilic (CRO) | DOWN 15 | 39 |
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) | UP 13 | 52 |
Denis Shapovalov (CAN) | UP 13 | 15 CAREER HIGH |
Tommy Paul (USA) | DOWN 10 | 90 |
Danka Kovinic (MNE) | UP 20 | 88 |
Viktorija Golubic (SUI) | DOWN 16 | 81 |
Nina Stojanovic (SRB) | UP 15 | 86 CAREER HIGH |
Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) | UP 12 | 99 |
Lin Zhu (CHN) | UP 12 | 83 CAREER HIGH |
ATP & WTA Top 10 Ranking Changes
ATP: there was one new addition to the top ten and lots of reshuffling. Rafael Nadal is back at number one, but at what price? Novak Djokovic fell one spot to #2. Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini, and Roberto Bautista Agut each moved up one spot to #6, #8 and #9 respectively. Alexander Zverev fell one spot to #7, and the new member this week is Gael Monfils, who is back in the top ten at #10. Karen Khachanov fell out of the top ten to #17.
WTA: there were no changes amongst the top ten members; however, there was a bit of re-shuffling in the positions. The top three players remained the same with Ashleigh Barty ending the year as the number one ranked female player (she won the year ending WTA Finals tournament). Simona Halep moved up one spot to #4. Bianca Andreescu, Petra Kvitova, Belinda Bencic and Serena Williams each fell one spot to #5, #7, #8 and #10 respectively. Elina Svitolina moved up two spots to #6 and Kiki Bertens moved up one spot to #9.
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