Rafael Nadal is back to No. 1 world and Roger Federer has fallen to No. 2 following the latter’s loss to Borna Coric in the Gerry Weber Open final on Sunday afternoon. Federer failed to defend his 500 points from last year’s title in Halle, where Coric upset him 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-2.
The two all-time greats have now traded the top spot back and forth an incredible six straight times since anyone else held it (Andy Murray last August). All six changes have taken place in the last five months–not including, of course, Nadal’s takeover from Murray in the summer of 2017.
They had most recently flip-flopped earlier this month when Federer triumphed in Stuttgart, marking their fifth tradeoff during this stretch.
on Monday, Federer and Nadal will have alternated the No. 1 ranking five times since anyone else had it. That is tied for fourth most all-time with Safin-Kuerten, Edberg-Courier, and Connors-Borg.
all-time leader is McEnroe-Lendl at 11
McEnroe-Connors & McEnroe-Borg are T2 at 7 pic.twitter.com/Y2laNI0rOY— Ricky Dimon (@Dimonator) June 16, 2018
With Federer defending champion’s points at Wimbledon, as well, he will be hard-pressed to retake the No. 1 ranking following the upcoming festivities at the All-England Club. The 36-year-old must win the tournament and have Nadal lose at some point during the first week. Nadal reached only the fourth round last season, suffering an upset at the hands of Gilles Muller.
For now, it’s one week of rest for Federer and another off week for the Spaniard.
“I’m definitely looking forward to some recovery time now next week and just some easy preparation,” Federer commented. “[I’m] really going to love going to Wimbledon. Being the defending champion always creates pressure. So regardless of whether I won or lost [in Halle], I will be one of the favorites there. But all of that stuff doesn’t matter; I just really need to make sure I play great tennis from the get-go and hopefully I can do that there again.”
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