Nadal lost his top spot to his long-term rival Roger Federer when the latter defeated his Dutch opponent Robin Haase at Rotterdam Open to become the oldest World No.1.
Tennis ace Rafael Nadal on Monday returned to his lost number one spot in men's professional tennis. The Spaniard will now begin his 168th week as World No.1.
Nadal lost his top spot to his long-term rival Roger Federer when the latter defeated his Dutch opponent Robin Haase at Rotterdam Open to become the oldest World No.1.
The 16-time grand slam champion first ascended to the top spot nine-and-a-half years ago on August 18, 2008. Also, he has never lost his place in top 10 since April 2005.
The 31-year-old has spent four previous stints at No. 1 ' 46 weeks between August 18, 2008 and July 5, 2009, 56 weeks from June 7, 2010 to July 3, 2011, 39 weeks between October 7, 2013 and July 6, 2014 and 26 weeks from August 21, 2017 to February 18, 2018.
Only Federer (309), Pete Sampras (286), Ivan Lendl (270), Jimmy Connors (268), Novak Djokovic (223) and McEnroe (170) have spent more weeks than Nadal at No. 1 since August 1973.
Career-best rankings for Indians
Ankita Raina leapfrogged 43 places to her career-best singles rank of 212 in the WTA chart while Ramkumar Ramanathan also achieved his career-best rankings after climbing four places to 132.
Ankita became world No 212 on the back of her her first singles title in more than three years when she beat Amandine Hesse in straight sets in the final of the $25,000 ITF women's event in Gwalior.
"One more milestone achieved, getting closer to one of my goals of playing Grand Slams. This has just made my belief stronger that dreams do come true, if you put the efforts and be patient, nothing can stop you to get to the top," Ankita told PTI.
In the ATP rankings, country's top singles player Yuki Bhambri jumped two places and is now ranked 105 followed by Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal (213, +5), Prajnesh Gunseswaran (263, -17) and Arjun Khade (394, +29).
Ramkumar had reached the quarterfinals of the Euro 43,000 Marbella Challenger in Spain.
In men's doubles, Rohan Bopanna (19) and Divij Sharan (43) gained one spot each while Leander Paes remained unchanged at 45. He was followed by Purav Raja (62).
In the WTA rankings Karman Kaur Thandi was the next best player singles after remained unchanged at 273.
In women's doubles, out of action Sania Mirza moved down seven places to number 23, her lowest rank in seven years.
(Inputs from PTI)
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