For the first time since 2004, Rafael Nadal is not a top-10 player on April 25! Nadal cracked the elite group on this day in 2005, still at 18. Rafa would remain in the top-10 for nearly 18 years, collecting 912 consecutive top-10 weeks before dropping out for the first time a month ago! The young Spaniard kicked off the 2003 season from just outside the top-200. The 16-year-old needed less than four months to pass half of the rivals in front of him and propel his stellar progress toward the top tier of men’s tennis.
After 19 Challenger wins (four finals and the title in Barletta) and the third-round result in Monte Carlo, Rafa cracked the top-100 in April, still before his 17th birthday. The Spaniard kept charging in the following months, beating much older and more experienced rivals to book a place in the top-50 by August!
Despite a nasty injury in Estoril that had halted his rise in the spring of 2004, Rafa won his first ATP title four months later in Sopot.
Rafael Nadal embraced 912 consecutive top-10 weeks.
Despite ups and downs, the youngster kept his ranking position ahead of 2005 and set his eyes on big targets.
Rafa competed in the Australian Open fourth round before conquering Costa do Sauipe and Acapulco on beloved clay. The best was yet to come for an extraordinary teenager. He stood two points away from winning the Miami Masters title against world no.
1 Roger Federer before falling in five sets. Nadal left that tough defeat behind and went all the way in Monte Carlo a few weeks later for his first Masters 1000 crown, toppling Guillermo Coria after a marathon. Eager for more, Rafa headed to Barcelona with no rest.
He conquered the title after beating Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets (the best-of-five final), lifting another crown and adding 300 ATP points that propelled him into the top-10 for the first time in a career. At 18 years and ten months, Rafa became the eighth-youngest player in the elite group since the start of the ATP ranking in 1973.
He joined Aaron Krickstein, Michael Chang, Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Andre Agassi and Andrei Medvedev, standing as the youngest player on the list since 1993! Despite many troubles with injuries, Rafa had never left the elite group until this March, forging 912 consecutive top-10 weeks for the record that will take some beating in the future!
The Spaniard spent 837 of those weeks in the top-5. He has proven his unmatched consistency and raised the bar high for the upcoming youngsters who must stay at the top of their games for over 15 years to match Nadal’s numbers.
Rafa had a mediocre period between Roland Garros 2014 and the end of 2016, although he remained in the top-10 by only just. Nadal bounced back and became one of the world’s best players in 2017, extending his incredible tennis journey.
With 22 Major titles and 36 Masters 1000 crowns by his name, Rafa is right up there in the GOAT race against Novak Djokovic, proving his quality over two decades since his professional debut. Nadal is still eager to extend his career and secure more notable results and records if he recovers from an injury.
