Dominant Nadal retains world No.1 ranking

After his crushing win over Dominic Thiem in Paris on Sunday Rafael Nadal has not surprisingly held on to his No. 1 ATP ranking.

The King of Clay was dominant at Roland Garros over the Austrian seventh seed. It was a tense opening set, but he then ran away with the contest, emerging 6-4 6-3 6-2 in just two hours and 42 minutes.

[quote]“What really matters for me is to have this trophy again with me,” Nadal said.[/quote]

“That means a lot. As everybody knows, for me is the most important tournament of the year. But I always say the same. Tennis is not only about Grand Slams. There’s much more tournaments, a lot of important tournaments that, for me, means a lot. But of course Roland Garros is always on the calendar and a special date.”

Nadal is the first player – man or woman – to win 11 titles at a single Grand Slam tournament in the modern Open era and moves to within three Grand Slam’s of Roger Federer’s record of 20. He’s also the fourth man in modern times to win three or more Grand Slam titles after turning 30. The others? Federer, Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.

June has been a stunning month for Nadal, winning in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and in Rome. Thiem has gone up one place to No. 7 after his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros and other two French Open semi-finalists have also benefitted.

Juan Martin del Potro, who made his first Roland Garros semi since 2009, lifts to No. 4 and Marco Cecchinato jumped an amazing 45 spots on the ladder to a career-high mark of No. 27. He will now probably earn a seeding at Wimbledon.

Otherwise, very little movement. But for British fans it’s worth noting that former former World No. 1 Andy Murray has fallen 110 spots to No.157, the first time outside the top 150 since 2005.

Latest ATP Top 20 Rankings:

1. Rafael Nadal
2. Roger Federer
3. Alexander Zverev
4. Juan Martin del Potro (2)
5. Marin Cilic (-1)
6. Grigor Dimitrov (-1)
7. Dominic Thiem (+1)
8. Kevin Anderson (-1)
9. David Goffin
10. John Isner
11. Diego Schwartzman (+1)
12. Pablo Carreno Busta (-1)
13. Sam Querrey (+2)
14. Jack Sock
15. Fabio Fognini (+3)
16. Roberto Bautista Agut (-3)
17. Lucas Pouille (-1)
18. Kyle Edmund (-1)
19. Tomas Berdych (+1)
20. Hyeon Chung (-1)