Medvedev will take the number two from Nadal on March 15

A new adjustment in the ranking system announced at the beginning of this month of March by the ATP will see Daniil Medvedev remove the number two from Rafa Nadal on March 15. On that day the new rule will come into force that will make the results obtained by tennis players between March 4 and August 5, 2019 in tournaments that were not played in 2020, extend for another 52 weeks, but computed at 50% .

That is, the Balearic, who won 360 points in Indian Wells two years ago (reached the semifinals and withdrew due to injury before playing against Federer), will now lose half (180)While Medvedev, who only added 45, will have 23 subtracted. As the Russian (9,735) is 115 points behind Nadal (9,850), he will surpass him by 42, when in two Mondays he has 9,712 and Rafa 9,670.

This will be the case because Medvedev will play next week at the ATP 250 in Doha and Nadal will not participate in any tournament, probably until the Masters 1,000 in Miami. (March 24 to April 4). Thus, the Muscovite will reach the best position of his career and will end the tyranny of the Big Four (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray) in the top-2. He will be the first player outside of that select club to slip into one of the top two places in the standings since July 25, 2005., when Australian Lleyton Hewitt lost number two.

Umpteenth change

The world situation due to the coronavirus pandemic has caused the ATP to change the world ranking system several times. Now, tournaments will remain non-mandatory until August 9 (Canadian Masters 1,000) and the system that counts the best result obtained by the tennis players in each event since March 2019 will be maintained, but with that exception of 50% of the points for which they were not played last year.