On April 25, Beijing time, ATP officially announced the latest edition of the world rankings. Nadal, who has been playing the free card for the past few weeks, is still in fourth place in the world this week. On Monday, Nadal ushered in another personal milestone moment, he has been in the world's top ten for 17 consecutive years, continuing to write his own legend.
The world goes back 17 years to April 25, 2005, when Nadal rose from 11th in the world to 7th in the world with his Barcelona Open. Since then, the clay god has never let himself fall out of the top 10. This week is Nadal's 866th consecutive world top 10, and his first ten consecutive weeks are already 78 weeks ahead of second-place Connors, and Nadal is breaking his own record every week.
In Nadal's 866 weeks in the world's top ten, he ranked first in the world for 209 weeks, ranked in the world's top two in 579 weeks, ranked in the top three in the world at 657 weeks, and reached 798 weeks in the world's top five weeks, and is about to usher in the 800-week milestone of personal TOP5.
Nadal has suffered from injuries many times over the past 17 years, but even in 2015 and 2016, when his career was at its lowest, Nadal did not let himself fall out of the top ten. After the 2015 French Open and in early August, Nadal's rankings had fallen to 10th in the world, but he had re-improved his rankings with his performance at Hamburg.
Nadal's number of consecutive world first ten weeks is unmatched, and it will be difficult to surpass even for a long time to come. His two old rivals Federer and Djokovic had 734 and 555 consecutive weeks of the first ten weeks, respectively, and it was no longer possible for the two to catch up with Nadal's record. Considering that Nadal has been recuperating after last year's clay season, and the points he has earned in the first three months of this year, Nadal's consecutive world top ten weeks will continue.
Tennis is a sport that requires very strict physical fitness, willpower and technical tactics, and many good athletes have not had 17 years of careers, while Nadal has been stable and stable at the top for 17 years. Nadal is not just a god on clay, but a well-deserved god in the entire tennis world.