Currently ranked number five, Spain’s Rafael Nadal leads the battle for the year-end number one ranking by virtue of his impressive performances since his comeback last February. The Mallorcan has reached eight finals out of eight tournaments he has participated, including the ongoing Rome Masters tournament.
Based on the points accumulated solely in 2013 season, Nadal leads with 4,600 ranking points and this will increase should he win the Rome Masters tournament on Sunday. Novak Djokovic drops to second place due to his quarterfinal exit in Rome. He has accumulated 4,310 points.
Based on the 52-week ranking period, Djokovic still leads Nadal by nearly 6,000. However, the Serb will have a tough task of defending the points he had accumulated from Wimbledon 2012 onwards. Nadal will look to defend his points in Roland Garros. After that, he will be accumulating ranking points. Nadal missed half of the 2012 season to recover from knee injury.
Nadal has won five titles out of past seven tournament appearances which include two Masters events (Indian Wells, Madrid), ATP 500 (Barcelona), ATP 250 (Sao Paulo) and two runner-up finishes at Vina del Mar and Monte Carlo Masters. He’s aiming for a third Masters title this season at the Rome Masters final where he will face either Roger Federer or Benoit Paire.
