Rafa Nadal and the cost of missing Roland Garros: he will drop out of the top 100 for the first time in 20 years

Rafael Nadal will be absent from Roland Garros for the first time since making his debut at the French Grand Slam in 2005. Left leg iliopsoas injury which he suffered in Australia and from which he still could not fully recover forced him to make the decision to withdraw from the biggest tournament of his career, in which he won a record 14 titles, and to stay away from tennis for some months, to try to get competitive again in 2024.

That stop, for now indefinite, will cost the Majorcan a lot, if we talk about the standings. For not playing in Paris will drop out of the top 100 after more than two decades. And if he doesn’t race again this season, he’ll finish the year with nearly no points and outside the top 600.

Raf He played in this 2023 just two tournaments. He has lost both matches played in united cup with the Spanish team and said goodbye in the second round of the oceanic “big”, in which he was injured. He never returned to court. He started the year as number two in the world with 6,020 points and next Monday, when the rankings are updated, he will appear 15th with 2,445. The great fall, the same, will take place after Paris.

In the French capital, the Spaniard had to defend 2,000 points, which he managed to crown in the last edition with a victory over the Norwegian Casper Ruud. So, after that race, he will have only 445 units left and he will finish 135th in the tournament. And for the first time in more than 20 years he won’t be in the top 100.

The last time Nadal appeared outside that group was in mid-April 2003. In the week of 14 to 20 of that month, as 109th in the standings, he surpassed the quality From Montecarlo and I entered it main designthe first of his career at a Masters 1000. He reached the round of 16 and lost to Guillermo Coria. And with the 90 points collected on Monaco soil, he presented himself on Monday 21st in 96th place, surpassing the barrier of the top 100 for the first time. He never came out of that lot.

The descent of the Majorcan, winner of 22 “major” titles (he shares the record for most titles with Novak Djokovic), will continue after that race if, as anticipated this Thursday, he no longer competes this season.

Is that in the second half of the year will lose another 400 points: 10 of Cincinnati Masters 1000 and many more of Paris (fell in both on debut), 180 gods US Open (second round) and 200 del Turin ATP Finals (He won only one round-robin game.) He’ll stay at 45 and finish the year around 630th.

You have to go back more than 21 years to find him so low in the standings: on Sunday, April 29, 2002 he was number 762. The following day, thanks to the 15 units he had obtained the previous week in his first tournament ATP extensionIn Majorcawhich he entered via a wild card and won one game, moved up to 588th.

Meanwhile, if he extends his time off the field and doesn’t compete at Australia 2024, he will also lose those 45 to nil, for the first time since September 2001.

Blessed Protected Classification

Nadal’s goal today is to fully recover from the injury and return to competition. If you do, next year you will have to take advantage of it joker (special invitations) or use the protected leaderboard to access the tournament tables.

What is Secure Ranking? It is an asset that players who have been away from the field for at least six months due to injury and who want to return to competition have. It is calculated by averaging the positions occupied by the tennis player in the first three months of inactivity and can be used to access the main draw or qualify for a match. It is valid for the first nine tournaments the player participates in or for a period of nine months from the first event played in that leaderboard, whichever event comes first.

By this criterion, Nadal would return as 9th in the standings, which would give him access to the main draw of any tournament he wants to play, from the ATP 250 to the Grand Slams.