Nadal, the second oldest player to hold the number 1 ranking

Nadal is the second oldest player to hold the title of world number 1, after Swiss player Roger Federer achieved it in 2018 at age 36. Nadal is 33 years old.

The possible abdominal injury that occurred during the morning training session before the semifinals of the Paris Masters 1000, which he couldn't play, is the only blemish in his 197-week reign at the top of the ATP rankings.

Because the ATP Finals are up in the air and that's where the number 1 should play against Djokovic. If he could do it and achieve it, Nadal would be the oldest player to end a year as the best.

The Mallorcan tennis player reached his first number 1 ranking on August 18, 2008, at the age of 22, at the Beijing Olympics, maintaining that privileged position for 46 weeks until July 5, 2009.

Nadal returned to the top spot on six other occasions, before the present one, between June 7, 2010, and July 3, 2011 (56 weeks), from October 7, 2013, to July 6, 2014 (39 weeks), from August 21, 2017, to February 18, 2018 (26 weeks), from April 2 to May 13, 2018 (six weeks), from May 21 to June 17, 2018 (four weeks), and from June 25 to November 4, 2018 (19 weeks).

The Spanish tennis player has been ranked number 1 in the world at some point in nine of the last twelve years (2008-2011, 2013-14, and 2017-19).

Nadal, who couldn't finish the previous season due to injury, has achieved a record of 51-6 and four titles in 2019: his twelfth Roland Garros (against Austrian Dominic Thiem), his fourth US Open (against Russian Daniil Medvedev), his ninth Rome Masters 1000 (against Serbian Novak Djokovic), and his 35th Masters 1000 in Montreal (against Medvedev).

On July 11, Nadal became the first player to qualify for the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. It is the fifteenth consecutive year that he qualifies for the final tournament played by the top eight players.