Roger Federer’s clay-court season is off to a flying start without having played a point.
The Swiss will move back inside the Top 3 of the ATP Rankings on Monday. Alexander Zverev currently leads Federer by 180 ATP Rankings points, but needed to reach at least the semi-finals in Munich to maintain his standing. The two-time defending champion in Munich couldn’t convert on two match points in his quarter-final loss to Cristian Garin of Chile.
That means 37-year-old Federer, 32-year-old Rafael Nadal and 31-year-old Novak Djokovic will fill the Top 3 on Monday. They first occupied the Top 3 together on July 9, 2007. Federer dropped out of the Top 5 in January after his Australian Open title defense ended with a fourth-round defeat to Stefanos Tsitsipas, but he rebounded brilliantly by winning the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Tsitsipas) and Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Isner), in addition to finishing runner-up at the BNP Paribas Open (l. to Thiem).
Federer currently has 5,590 ATP Rankings points, but trails considerably behind Nadal (7,765) and Djokovic (11,160). However, the Swiss star isn’t defending any points this clay season since he’s competing on the surface for the first time since 2016. He’ll have a valuable opportunity to close the gap over the next few weeks.
He’ll also have an opportunity to further distance himself from everyone outside of the Top 3. Zverev is defending 1,960 points during the remainder of the European clay season and World No. 5 Dominic Thiem is defending 2,050 points in that time. World No. 6 Kevin Anderson is sitting out the clay season this year with an elbow injury.
Federer will compete next week at the Mutua Madrid Open and seeks his fourth title at this event.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2LoSxLO
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