The last 5 changes in the No.1 ranking in men’s tennis

July 9, 2012 – Roger Federer

Along similar lines to that of Nadal’s fine run this year, Federer managed to put together a fine run of results culminating in his triumph at Wimbledon 2012 where he beat Andy Murray to clinch his 17th Grand Slam title.

The run actually started towards the end of the 2011 season. He pulled out of the Shanghai Masters that year which resulted him in dropping out of the top three for the first time since June 2003. But he came back with a bang, to win the last three tournaments of the year –in Basel, the Paris Masters and year end championships in London – to finish on a high note.

He even crushed his nemesis Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals en route to the title at the season ending Masters in London.

At the start of the 2012 season, Federer lost to Nadal in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, but had a strong hardcourt season with wins at Dubai and the Masters 1000 events at Indian Wells and Madrid.

He lost in the semi-finals again at the French Open to Novak Djokovic, but had an inspired run on his favourite grass at Wimbledon which included the scalp of the World No.1 Djokovic in the semis.

He won once again at Cincinnati.

His run came a full circle with a semi-final loss in the Shanghai Masters and him deciding to pull out of the Paris Masters which ultimately helped Djokovic reclaim his ranking.