Rafael Nadal has a very strong year so far but the 2022 season might even get better for him if he keeps playing at a very high level.
The last time Nadal played was at Wimbledon and he reached the semifinal there. An injury forced him to withdraw ahead of the clash against Kyrgios but he's shown once again that his level is pretty high at the moment. He is hopeful to continue that trend as the season goes on and he will have a good chance if he avoids injury and his foot holds up.
The Spaniard is currently ranked 3rd in the world behind Zverev and Medvedev with a very decent chance to make his ranking even better. How? Well, due to the fact that he barely played in the 2nd half last year, he barely defends any points. In fact, he only defends 545 points which is not much at all. A semifinal run in US Open would cover that easily.
Why does that matter? It matters because Nadal might end up as the year-end number one if things go a certain way. All other players in the top 10 are defending a lot more points than Nadal and if he can win a couple of events, he could easily end up on top of tennis. Medvedev for example has 5200 points to defend (the vast majority of his points) and Zverev 4150 (over half of his points).
If Nadal outplays both of them he could easily finish above them in the rankings. There is a decent chance things work out this way and if it does, Nadal would be on top of tennis one more time. Check out how much members of the top 10 defend in the 2nd half of the season.
1 - Medvedev : 5200
2 - Zverev : 4150
3 - Nadal : 545
4 - Tsitsipas : 1080
5 - Ruud : 1825
6 - Alcaraz : 1025
7 - Djokovic : 2800
8 - Rublev : 1170
9 - Auger-Aliassime : 1080
10 - Sinner : 1755
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