Rafael Nadal Leaves Top 10 For The First Time Since 2005

For the first time since 2005, Rafael Nadal has officially left the Top 10, and while it wasn’t a long time coming, it was bound to happen one way or another.

Nadal ascended to the top of tennis fairly early in his career because he has always been an amazing tennis player, even though early on he did most of the damage on the clay courts, which are his favorite to this day.

Pretty much as a teenager, Nadal was already beating the best on clay, and it allowed him to ascend fairly quickly. After he made it to the Top 10, the Spaniard never let go of his ranking, mostly because he was able to win a Grand Slam almost every year.

There is a 2,000-point reward for winning a major, so it’s very hard to fall out of the Top 10. Nadal dropped down to the World No. 5 spot in 2013, and in 2015, he nearly dropped out of the Top 10, as he was ranked No. 10 at one point. That was the lowest he had been ranked in years, but not quite enough to exit the Top 10.

The 22-time major winner was also ranked ninth in the world in both 2016 and 2017. As Nadal got older, his ranking became more and more volatile. In 2023, his ranking dropped below number 10 for the first time, mainly because he missed plenty of times on the tennis courts.

He hasn’t been playing a lot this year, and due to that inactivity, he has been losing most of his points. That means that he will now end a 912-week streak of consecutive weeks in the Top 10. Regardless of his ranking, the experienced Spaniard will still be among the favorites anytime he enters a tournament.