Nadal breaks another Federer record: 12 top-2 year-ends

After equaling Roger Federer's 20 Grand Slams by winning last October at Roland Garros and surpass Jimmy Connors as the player who has been in the top-10 of the world rankings for the most weeks (791), Rafa Nadal will break another record related to the classification when it becomes official next Monday that will end the year in second place. In that way the Spaniard will manage to finish the course in the top-2 for the 12th time in his career, something that no one has achieved so far, nor Federer himself, who did it 11 times and the one who surpasses now.

Dominic Thiem's ​​loss to Andrey Rublev at the ATP Finals in London made it impossible for the world number three Austrian to overtake Nadal in 2020. Not even being champion and with a premature elimination of Nadal in the Masters, the current champion of the US Open would have passed to the Spanish. In that case he would have stayed 25 points with 9,625 for Rafa's 9,650. To overcome him he needed to win the title and finish undefeated, something that can no longer happen.

Nadal thus ends up once again among the two best on the tennis planet, as in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2017 and 2019, when he finished leader, and 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2018 and 2020, when his position at the end of the season was the second. Djokovic, who will finish 2020 as number one, is three years away, with nine, from the new brand of the manacorí.