Roger Federer rises to No. 2 ranking on a historic day for Swiss tennis

Swiss maestro Roger Federer

Following Andy Murray’s failure to defend his 2015 Madrid Masters title, 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has climbed one spot to be World No. 2 in the latest rankings released on Monday. But the biggest news for Swiss tennis is that an unprecedented five players from the Alpine nation are now placed within the top 10 simultaneously.

Besides the former World No. 1, Wawrinka is the other Swiss inside the top 10 ATP rankings at No. 4. The WTA singles rankings list also sees two compatriots of Federer among the elite – Belinda Bencic at No. 8 and Timea Bacsinszky at No. 10.

While the 19-year-old Bencic is recuperating from a back injury, Bacsinszky, who won at Rabat and reached the Madrid 3rd round, matched her career-best 10th position.

Meanwhile, Martina Hingis, who lost the Madrid final with Sania Mirza, continues to reign atop the women’s doubles world rankings, completing the quintet of Swiss players in the top 10 this week.

Here’s the tweet from Swiss Tennis Twitter handle confirming the big news:

First time ever #SwissTennis has five players in the WTA/ATP #topten at the same time! #proud #SupportTheSwiss pic.twitter.com/36c5EgWS3W

— Swiss Tennis (@swiss_tennis) May 9, 2016

Djokovic continues his reign

Madrid winner Novak Djokovic remains unchanged at the pinnacle and has now extended his lead over the second-placed Federer to 9025 points. Elsewhere, the 14th placed Dominic Thiem and the 15th placed Gael Monfils interchanged their places in the new rankings while Nick Kyrgios made a return to the top 20.

Halep back in top 5

In WTA, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova had contrasting fortunes. By securing her maiden Madrid title, the Romanian jumped from the seventh spot to the fifth. Kvitova, on the other hand, dropped three places to ninth after seeing the defense of her 2015 Madrid crown ending prematurely.

Angelique Kerber and Agnieszka Radwanska, both of whom suffered first round defeats, interchanged their places. While the Australian Open champion is now back to being the No. 2 player, Radwanska is currently third. Victoria Azarenka, who withdrew ahead of her third round match last week due to a back injury, has dropped a spot to sixth.

Indian players: Big leap for Mahesh Bhupathi

Amongst the Indian players, Sania Mirza continues to be co-ranked No. 1 with her doubles partner Hingis.

In men’s doubles, Rohan Bopanna has plunged two spots to 13th after being unsuccessful in defending his 2015 Madrid title. But the other two Indian evergreen tennis heroes rose high in the latest rankings.

Following his Busan Challenger win, Leander Paes has risen three spots to be 54th while Mahesh Bhupathi has a made a massive leap of 45 places to be ranked 169th after winning a round in the Spanish capital.