ATP Rankings: Rafael Nadal returns pressure back on Novak Djokovic
The sixth Masters 1000 tournament is behind us, with Rafael Nadal defending the title and 1000 points in Montreal to stay in touch with Novak Djokovic. The Serb is spending the 264th week at the top of the ATP ranking, needing just seven more to pass Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl and continue the race towards Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. Novak decided to skip Montreal together with Roger Federer, leaving Nadal as the top favorite for the crown and preparing for Cincinnati and the US Open where he has 3000 points to defend. Nadal did what he had to do, lifting the 35th Masters 1000 crown after beating Daniil Medvedev in the final, standing 4380 points behind Djokovic and opting to skip Cincinnati and prepare for the US Open. Dominic Thiem had to deal with a cold after Kitzbuhel, making a long trip to Montreal where he took just four games against Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-final, still moving further ahead of Kei Nishikori and Stefanos Tsitsipas who hit the exit door after the opening match.
The young Greek spent only one week in the top-5, losing a huge amount of points after playing in the final in Toronto a year ago and dropping to the 7th spot. Alexander Zverev lost to Karen Khachanov in the quarter-final, missing a chance to add more points and improve his position on the list, needing some big result badly in the next couple of tournaments if he wants to stay in touch for the place at the ATP Finals. Montreal finalist Daniil Medvedev is the new Russian no. 1, earning 600 points and passing Karen Khachanov whom he defeated in the first-ever all-Russian Masters 1000 semi-final.
Fabio Fognini, Roberto Bautista Agut (career-best ranking) and Borna Coric also gained places, passing Kevin Anderson who is on the worst ranking position since the beginning of 2018, struggling with an injury and not playing since Wimbledon. Montreal semi-finalist Gael Monfils is in the top-15 again and there are no new players in the top-20, with Felix Auger-Aliassime still waiting to make a debut there. Hubert Hurkacz took down Stefanos Tsitsipas and reached the last 16 to enter the top-40 for the first time, with a career-high ranking for Reilly Opelka, Casper Ruud, Juan Ignacio Londero, Soonwoo Kwon and Kamil Majchrzak. Grigor Dimitrov is out from the top-70 for the first time since June 2012 and will have to find the form as soon as possible if he wants to avoid the qualifying rounds at Masters 1000 events, winning only 12 matches so far in 2019 and never finding form again since the spring of 2018.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Tq3zRB
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