ATP rankings update: Novak Djokovic back to No. 1, Rafael Nadal plummets out of top-100
The updated ATP rankings post the 2023 French Open had wildly different results for Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. While the Serb returned to the World No. 1 position off the back of his title run, the Spaniard dropped out of the top-100 as his absence from the tour continues.
With a return to the World No. 1 position, Djokovic will likely be the top seed at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships as well.
Djokovic didn't drop a single set in the first four rounds of the 2023 French Open. He lost the first set during his quarterfinal against Karen Khachanov, but recovered well to progress to the semis. There, he faced top seed Carlos Alcaraz and beat him 6-3, 7-5, 6-1, 6-1, as the Spaniard struggled with cramps in the last two sets.
The Serb posted a straight-sets win over Casper Ruud in the summit clash to lift the trophy in Paris. With it came the reward of 1,640 points that saw him surge past Alcaraz (7,175) and Daniil Medvedev (6,100) to regain the World No. 1 ranking with 7,595 points.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rafael Nadal, who could not play the French Open due to injury, dropped the 2,000 ranking points he was defending from last year.
The same has seen the Spaniard plummet 121 spots in the ATP rankings to slip all the way down to No. 136, his lowest in two decades.
Casper Ruud — who defended 1,300 points earned by the reaching the French Open final last year — and Stefanos Tsitsipas round out the top-five. In the only change in the top-10, Karen Khachanov (3,125) replaced Felix Auger-Aliassime (2,850) in the tenth spot.
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, not the only big movers in latest ATP rankings
Besides Novak Djokovic, the other big winners in terms of the ATP rankings included the Argentinian duo of Francisco Cerundolo, who entered the top 20 for the first time in his career with 1,655 points, and Tomas Martin Etcheverry, who jumped 17 spots to reach a new career-high of No. 32 with 1,201 points.
Jan Lennard Struff (+4 to No. 24), Yoshihito Nishioka (+6 to No. 27), Nicolas Jarry (+5 to No. 30), Juan Pablo Varillas (+33 to No. 61) and Sebastian Ofner (+31 to No. 81) have also reached new career-high rankings.
Marin Cilic, meanwhile, witnessed a slip akin to Rafael Nadal's — albeit not of the same magnitude. The Croat dropped 43 spots to be placed at No. 65 in the ATP rankings.