Rafael Nadal is no stranger to setting records and hitting milestones, and he has another big one this week. It’s the 800th week of his Top 10 career, only the third man to reach that number.
Only Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors have previously spent 800 weeks in total in the Top 10.
More race weeks in the ATP Top 10, starting the week of January 18, 2021:
931: Roger Federer
816: Jimmy Connors
800: Rafael Nadal
747: Andre Agassi
671: Ivan Lendl
(Novak Djokovic is currently in sixth place; this is week 666 of his career in the Top 10.)
However, one note that makes Nadal’s 800-week Top 10 career even more impressive is that they have all been together. It’s the longest consecutive Top 10 streak in ATP rankings history, with Nadal beating Connors’ previous record of 789 at the beginning of last November.
Top 5 most consecutive weeks in the ATP Top 10, as of the week of January 18, 2021:
800: Rafael Nadal
789: Jimmy Connors
734: Roger Federer
619: Ivan Lendl
565: Pete Sampras
Nadal first entered the Top 10 when he was 18 on April 25, 2005, after a two-week period that saw him win Monte Carlo and Barcelona for the first time. Six weeks later, he joined the great winning club at Roland Garros. Fast-forward to today and you’ve conquered Monte Carlo and Barcelona 11 times each, and Roland Garros 13 times; no other man has won the same ATP event more than 10 times.
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Spanish’s 800 weeks in the Top 10 do not include the 22-week period between March and August last year, when the ATP rankings were frozen while the tour was suspended due to COVID-19.
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In two weeks, Nadal will kick off his 2021 season in the ATP Cup, where he guided the Spanish team to the final last year before finishing runners-up against Serbia, led by Djokovic. He will then begin his quest for his 21st Grand Slam title, which would break Federer’s all-time record, at the Australian Open.
The Spaniard may have only won the Australian Open once, in 2009, but he has been around many more times. Not only has he reached the final four more times in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019, but he has reached the quarterfinals or more in 12 of his last 13 appearances at the event.
At last year’s Australian Open, Nadal was asked why he thinks he hasn’t been there as many times as anywhere else. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I broke twice in the fifth set and lost. Another time I got injured in the final, of course against a great opponent, but at the time against an opponent who was 14-0 against him. I had a problem with my luck in the final. The other times, like 2018, I got injured against Cilic. I went through a couple of things here. “
Will the extra time to prepare for this year’s Australian Open help Nadal win it again?
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