Following Rafael Nadal’s Round of 16 exit against Frances Tiafoe, the Spanish legendary player has lost his chance to be the new World No. 1 and replace Daniil Medvedev on top of the ATP Rankings.
Carlos Alcaraz or Casper Ruud now have a chance to depart New York as the top player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after Nadal’s defeat in the fourth round of the US Open. To compete at the highest level of men’s tennis, Alcaraz or Ruud must advance to the final match. Nadal will reclaim the top spot in the world if neither among the Norwegian nor the Spanish teen does.
To get to his second Grand Slam quarterfinal, American Frances Tiafoe defeated four-time champion, Nadal, with a score of 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Monday at the US Open. To win his third Top 5 match, the fired-up 24-year-old played fearlessly for the entire three hours and 31 minutes thriller at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tiafoe pounded the ball off both wings and overcame a breakdown in the fourth set to become the youngest and first American man since John Isner in 2018 to advance to the last eight in New York.
Before their match in New York, Tiafoe was 0-2 in their ATP Head-to-Head series versus Nadal and had never beaten the Spaniard in a set. However, the American spectacularly turned the tables by hitting 49 wins to exact revenge for his 2019 Australian Open quarterfinal loss.
