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

June 7, 2010 – Rafael Nadal

If 2011 belonged to Djokovic, then 2010 was Nadal’s year which propelled him to the top spot. He pulled out in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open against Andy Murray and then came back at Indian Wells, but lost to Ivan Ljubicic.

His first tour title came at Monte Carlo and really came into form in the clay court season and took the French Open again after Federer won it the previous year following Robin Soderling’s shock defeat of Nadal. Ironically, in 2010, Soderling had taken out Federer.

The victory at the French Open coupled with Federer’s loss in the quarters allowed Nadal to take back the No.1 ranking denying Federer the chance to surpass the all-time record for weeks as No.1. Through to the end of the year, he consolidated his position at the top of the rankings, and went on to win the two remaining Grand Slams – Wimbledon and US Open.

The US Open victory enabled him to complete the Career Slam as it was his first US Open title. It also made him only the second male player after Andre Agassi to achieve the ‘Career Golden Slam’ – winning the Olympic gold as well as all four Grand Slams at least once.