Rafael Nadal Withdraws From China Events, Novak Djokovic In Prime Position For No. 1

These makes the #1 race more interesting now. Even Federer and Delpo have a chance, but for them either have to win Shangai.

Nadal has now 7.480 pts and he can only add points in Paris and WTF, if he plays both.

Federer has 1.500 potential points if he wins Shangai and Basel as he did last year, before Nadal hit the courts again. Meaning he could enter Paris with 6.300 pts trailing Nadal by 1.180 pts.

I think Djoko will now decide to play Beijing (getting a wildcard at the last minute), a tourney he won 6 out of 6 times. He is relatively fresh, as he had a bunch of early losses in first half, and is only schedule for Shangai (5 matches) and Paris (5 matches) beofre London. If he wins there ha can regain #1 in Shangai. If he doesn’t play Beijing, even with a win in Shangai he can only dethorne Nadal in Paris.

Laver cup heat up this weekend in Chicago, Fed and Djoko seems on a good vibe for it:

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/1019844/Roger-Federer-Novak-Djokovic-Dirty-Dancing-Twitter-message-Laver-Cup

September 19th, 2018 at 11:23 am

My Injury Season aka Rest and Recovery Season has started. Fun and games for me. All work for you.

September 19th, 2018 at 12:20 pm

The Staff is afraid of updating Funk/Trunk. Who goes in the trunk?

1) Big Lady
2) Arrogant One
3) US Tennis

The Staff needs to keep its job, so they have decided not to update.

September 19th, 2018 at 4:22 pm

^Don’t you have anything better to do?
—-
@Daniel
Thanks for deciphering all that. Looks like the Fall schedule got a lot more interesting ;)

September 19th, 2018 at 5:31 pm

Which means Djoko will return to #1 before the WTFs- period. No one can stop him.

September 19th, 2018 at 7:31 pm

And looking ahead. Before or during Paris, Djoko is back to #1. He then will win the WTFs and Tie jittery Federer, and then win the AO. After that, he has almost nothing to defend until the grass court season so he’ll continue to stack on the points and should be 6,000+ points ahead of whoever is #2. Roger will loss 1000+ points because he won’t be defending the AO and he’ll lose points at IW and MO too as Djoko’s gonna take at least one of those if not both. Rafa has a ton of points to defend during the clay season which he most likely won’t be able to do with an improved Thiem and Djoko healthy and fresh, and then he has to make the semis at Wimbledon, win in Canada again, and make the semis of the USO which all are highly unlikely. So in reality, we’re looking at a situation where Djoko where Djoko can be back at #1 by November and remain #1 all of next year and then 2020 up until the clay court season. So to me, that’s roughly 80 weeks where Djoko will be #1. And add that to the 223 weeks he’s already been at #1 and you’ve got 300+ weeks at #1 and less than meek feddy’s 310 weeks. This has already been set in motion, so be afraid, feddy fans, be very afraid.

September 19th, 2018 at 7:43 pm

And let’s continue. Djoko wins 2 or 3 MAJORS next year and 2 in 2020. That leaves him with 18 or 19 MAJORS under his belt with 2 more years to win only 1 more MAJOR to tie meek feddy. And as we know, by that time, Djoko will have at least 300 weeks at #1 and could very well be ahead of the timid Swiss. Add to that 7 or 8 WTFs titles and 40 or so MASTERSS 1000s and you’ve got the GREATEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME! Ladies and gents, this is really happening so prepare yourselves…

September 19th, 2018 at 7:50 pm

@Ronn so much speculation

September 19th, 2018 at 10:20 pm

I was wondering why Nole accepted to play RLC, and it was fairly late acceptance (28/06/18), he really didn’t need that kind of exhibition while trying to rebuild his career and then I found out that it will be played in Chicago and everything fell into place.
Chicago is the second biggest Serbian city after Belgrade, those people and particularly kids will cherish forever memories of being able to watch Nole and having a chance to be close to him or even talk to him, here is him in Chicago with a kids (half of the with Serbian background), orginized by his foundation, just listen to kids, it’s priceless, good on you Nole for making these kids happy and having a day they will remeber for the rest of their life:

https://youtu.be/4BxZPOdIy84

I heard that part of Chicago, I think south part, is pretty tough part for growing up , any Chicago residents here to confirm that?

September 20th, 2018 at 12:20 am

Oh, my goodness, Ron is getting himself so excited.Too much speculation here. You know the old saying. “Many a slip twixt cup and lip.”Just wait and see how things plan out. Obviously, you are a Djoko fan, No accounting for taste, Rafa and Federer might have something to say.

September 20th, 2018 at 5:22 am

Somebody is counting his chickens much!
Big mistake!!

September 20th, 2018 at 5:25 am

I think Djoko would have to add Beijing. He is still 1000 pts, which seems low if he wins one of the next 2 Matsers (which he is very capable of), but any early loss can change.

And if Nadal recovers, he most likelly will play Paris and WTF. Last year he played Paris even injured just to secure #1. So if he Djoko under perfomrs in Shangai and Paris, QF and Semis (ot not winning either) Nadal can change his decision.

And even Federer may add Paris, depending on nhis and Djoko’s results. This year Paris is right after Basel but there is a week off before WTF. So he wuld play only 2 back to back weeks and usually Paris is the most depleted Masters field (apart from Monte Carlo) due to late in year;

Djoko is in greta postion for #1 bit njot a lock. an elary losso in Shangai, R16 or QF can change the sceanrio if he doesn’t play Beijing.

September 20th, 2018 at 12:02 pm

Nole is not changing his schedule just for the sake of getting to #1, and it wouldn’t look good now suddenly to add Bejing because Rafa is injured, not to me. It would look like kicking somebody while he is on the ground, that’s not fair fight. Nole has never done it before nor he will do it now. His next outing with the boys will be Shangai.
As for 37 years old I can say with pretty certainty that he stayed on tour one year too long, more tournaments more embarrassments.

September 20th, 2018 at 6:53 pm

Just reading joker might play Vienna.

September 21st, 2018 at 8:06 am

Link? So we can read too?!

September 21st, 2018 at 9:33 am

Beijing director also said they hope he might accept a late wildcard. Between Viena and Beijing he should choose Bejing, which alreayd is in Asia pre Shangai and a tourney he is invictus 6 out of 6.

https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Novak_Djokovic/59420/china-open-director-explains-why-novak-djokovic-is-not-on-the-entry-list/

September 21st, 2018 at 9:41 am

Djoko and Federer to play doubles last match tonight in Laver Cup against Anderson and Sock. Awesome!

https://lavercup.com/scores-results/2018-results-leaderboard

September 21st, 2018 at 9:44 am

For all you meek feddy naysayers who are doubting the harsh reality that is coming at you, just remember Pompeii and what happens when you DON’T LISTEN to common sense. Not even 3 months ago you guys were so smugly saying that my boy should have a fork stuck in him because he’s done and will never win another MAJOR or dominate again and kaboom!-he’s baaaaaaack. You naysayers should know better than to piss Djoko off because every time you do it motivates him to prove you wrong!

September 21st, 2018 at 10:05 am

Ronn,

Majority of the Djoko fans were the ones RIPing him, not the Fed fans;-)

September 21st, 2018 at 10:17 am

^First of all, I was one of the few ( you guessed it, I am a Fed fan ) who said Novak would be back, heck, some of his loyal church went awol when he went with said guru and had injury problems. In fact, where you you dude? Crickets…..
Regarding Fed, This is how embarrassing it has been for him at an old age: He has won 3 Slams in the last year and a half. When his peers can do that at this age, then I will do a Hallelujah.
If Fed doesn’t have any more success, other than just enjoying playing tennis, all good here. Never expected him to be playing at all at this age. All gravy baby!

September 21st, 2018 at 10:34 am

Oh Be quiet Ronn. Seriously. Who cares about Number 1. Rafa is there, and rightly so, and if Novak takes over and leapfrogs Fed, then who cares. I don’t. Novak and Fed are playing together and tonight, of all nights, they are going to humour themselves, something that you should do, with a recreation of Dirty Dancing. Can’t wait. Love this type of relaxed approach between Fed and Novak. Something which people like you and Wogboy just can’t stand.

September 21st, 2018 at 11:56 am

Skeezer. Exactly. It’s all gravy from here.

September 21st, 2018 at 11:57 am

It’s nice to see the elite guys playing together but I’m not going to lie.

This being said it’s much more fun for me when the top guys despise each other e.g. Connors-Lendl, Mac-Connors , even Agassi- Sampras etc. There’s just no substitute for bad blood between two great players. It creates a feel of higher stakes when they played each other.

September 21st, 2018 at 12:50 pm

Serena x Sharapova SG1, you can almost see the tension in the air;-)

September 21st, 2018 at 1:33 pm

Daniel – hilarious!!

September 22nd, 2018 at 5:44 pm

I would like to see Djokovic get #1 back and bag a few more Masters and the WTF this year. For Slamcounters – it is really going to be up to later generations and us as we get a few more to place the Trio – and I believe it will be on the totality of their achievements. Especially if they cluster within a Slam or two of each other.
For now, it is looking like Sampras was the best player of the 1990s, Federer the best player of the 2000s, Djokovic the best of the decade of the 2010s, and Rafa the King of Clay.

September 22nd, 2018 at 8:55 pm

oh…boy
another “injury” from nadal that will keep him off tour for the regular silent half year ban… classic

October 13th, 2018 at 9:39 am