Rafa Nadal and the possibility of being the one in the world again: mathematics as an ally and the body as a great enemy

We still have half a season to go on the circuit and they are already starting to figure out who will win the jackpot. The last Grand Slam of the year to be defined in Flushing Meadows? No. The number 1 in the world is the one that will be at stake and it has its own weight.

Novak Djokovic can not only show the emblem – among the many other great merits achieved throughout his extraordinary career – of being the player with the most weeks at the top of the rankings. That number -373- allows you to have a difference of 63 weeks (or 441 days or just over a year and two months, whichever you prefer) from Roger Federer, no less.

But what shines the most in the Serbian are the seven seasons he finished from number 1. Someone once scored: “You can play number 1 for a week, a month or a year, but what really matters is who on December 31st will end up above everyone. This is what makes the story better. “. And who said she was right.

Daniil Medvedev was asked if he expected to still be at the top of the standings at the end of the year. And noted: “Unless he wins all the remaining tournaments, Rafa Nadal will probably finish at number 1”.

The reasons were not lacking in the Russian for that statement. First of all because it is impossible for him to prevail in all the tournaments that remain beyond a long lap on hard court (with different speeds, outdoor and indoor hard), which is the surface that is most suited to his tennis. . And second, because between now and the end of the year he will have to defend more points than anyone else. Nothing less than 5,050.

What about the rest? Just to mention those who follow him in the standings, Alexander Zverev will have 4,060 points (there is a small chance that the German could take over from Medvedev after the ATP 1000 in Montreal which starts on Monday); Carlos Alcaraz, 765; Stefanos Tsitsipas, 990; Djokovic himself, 2,800; Casper Ruud, 1,371; Andrey Rublev, 1,160; Felix Auger Aliassime, 1035; and Jannik Sinner, 1.215.

And Nadal? Whatever. Yes: 0 points. How come? Because in 2021 he played his last game in the round of 16 in Washington DC when the pain in his left foot became unbearable. And it only reappeared in January, in Melbourne, in preparation for Australia.

This places him as a serious candidate to be number 1 in the world at the end of the year for the sixth time in his career to repeat what happened in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019 and match American Pete Sampras.

It is true that Nadal’s physique will be the hardest obstacle for what is to come. But the Majorcan is ready to take on the challenge and has already shown it in a series of videos that have gone viral and which showed him hitting the ball at a very good pace in his academy with his cousin Joan Nadal, son of uncle Toni, in before the your trip to Canada.

Of course, Nadal is capable of winning at Flushing Meadows, a tournament he has already won four times, the last three years ago. And a consecration to New York would be a formidable push for the final part of a season that could give one more link to his huge career and another justification for being considered the greatest tennis player of all time.