Still outside the top 10

Rafa Nadal will not continue among the top ten tennis players in the world. The Spaniard, injured in his iliopsoas since the Australian Open, will leave the top 10 of the ATP rankings on March 20, when it is updated after the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, a tournament where Nadal defended 600 points from his final against Taylor Fritz last season.

Therefore, for the first time since April 25, 2005, almost 18 years ago, the man from Manacor will drop out of the top ten and leave a record of 912 weeks at the head of the ranking. He was overtaken by the Dane Holger Rune and the Pole Hubert Hurkacz, still He could also soon be surpassed by the British Cameron Norrie and the young Italian Jannik Sinner, who are defending a few points at the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, so they would drop the Spaniard to thirteenth place.

This circumstance is a big problem for the Balearic Islands, which when he returns to the tracks he will have more complicated pictures and will face major tournament seeds early. “I prefer to be in the top 10, that’s obvious, but in the end you have to accept things as they come. With all the injuries I’ve had in the last 18 years, the fact that I never once left the ‘top 10’ is practically a real miracle,” Nadal himself admitted this Thursday in front of the Movistar microphones.

Nadal, who watched the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final between Real Madrid and Barcelona live, also spoke about his comeback, although he was moderate: “I’m going little by little.” I haven’t talked much since what happened in Australia, but I did a big injury. It was a very big muscle tear, I tore the tendon a bit,” commented the Spaniard. In addition, he explained that his psoas injury is completely contraindicated for tennis players, because “in tennis we get our strength from there, which is a slower evolution than we would like” .

Nadal has not set any short-term goals due to two important deciding factors such as his age and the extent of the injury he has suffered, but he is expected to start the mainland tour, with the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 starting in 37 days.

Muguruza, the fall of another champion

a few days ago too the fall of Garbiña Muguruz is confirmedand, the former number one tennis player in the world, ten years later far from the top 100 of the WTA ranking. Since 2013, the Spanish-Venezuelan tennis player has fought with the best in the circuit and even recorded outstanding results. This year, Muguruza lost in the first four rounds he played: two in Adelaide, the Australian Open and the tournament in Lyon.

In the last week of February alone, Muguruza fell 40 places to 127th in the world rankings, which is unusual for a player of her quality. Winner of Wimbledon and Roland Garros, the Spanish Venezuelan will have to do reset and restore its best version. Like Nadal, being outside the top 100 in his case will force him to play previous rounds at major tournaments such as Grand Slams or Masters 1000 and face the seeds in the first round.