Ten years ago today, on 18 August 2008, Rafael Nadal first rose to No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. The Spaniard had long become accustomed to playing a waiting game, in stark contrast to his on-court dynamism and tenacity. For 160 consecutive weeks, a record, he had sat in second position, denied a place at the summit of men’s professional tennis by Roger Federer, the No. 1 for a record 237 straight weeks.

In the 1,119 days between Nadal first rising to No. 2 on 25 July 2005 and finally becoming the 24th player to rank World No. 1, since the advent of the ATP Rankings in August 1973, the then 22-year-old had compiled a 220-37 match record and lifted 22 titles. He went 20-2, with three titles in 2005; 59-12 and five titles in 2006; 70-15 and six titles in 2007 and from 1 January to 18 August 2018 he compiled a 71-8 record with 8 titles.

“I had three-and-a-half good years – 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008,” said Nadal. “I was winning a lot of points every year, but there was a player that was winning more than me in Roger. That year, Novak [Djokovic] also started playing well, so for me he was another tough rival. I began questioning whether I would ever be No. 1, so it was important for me to achieve it. I believed I deserved it after playing at a high level for many weeks and it means a lot to me.”

To break Federer’s tight hold on No. 1, which had begun when the Swiss first achieved the ranking on 4 February 2004, Nadal had gone on a four-month tear, compiling a 47-2 record (including a 32-match winning streak across three different surfaces – clay, grass and hard courts). In that period between 21 April to 17 August 2005, Nadal won eight titles from 10 tournaments — including two Grand Slam championships at Roland Garros and Wimbledon (d. Federer both times), the Beijing Olympics gold medal (d. Gonzalez), three ATP World Tour Masters 1000s in Monte-Carlo (d. Federer), Hamburg (d. Federer) and Toronto (d. Kiefer), one 500-level at Barcelona (d. Ferrer) and one 250 at Queen’s Club in London (d. Djokovic).

Today, he remains at No. 1, albeit in his seventh different stint (Nadal and Federer have already moved between No. 1 and No. 2 on six occasions this year). With a 40-3 record and five trophies in 2018, Nadal has amassed 80 crowns in an illustrious career — including 17 Grand Slam championships and a record 33 Masters 1000 crowns — and with a 2,495 points gap over second-placed 21-year-old Alexander Zverev and 2,750 points ahead of Federer in the 2018 ATP Race To London, the legendary Spaniard is firmly in contention to finish the year-end No. 1 for a fifth time (2008, 2010, 2013, 2017). “To finish the year as World No. 1 is different, more important,” said Nadal. “The first time in 2008 was amazing, but it was more emotional and special to me in 2013 after overcoming problems with my knees.”

NADAL’S RECORD AT NO. 1 IN ATP RANKINGS

David Goffin already led by a set and a break against Juan Martin del Potro, but the Belgian wasn’t ready to hop into celebration mode just yet. At 1-1 in the second set, Goffin broke with a backhand return winner but he didn’t let out a shout; instead Goffin, very businessman-like, calmly walked to his chair for the changeover.

The 11^th seed applied that focus all match to beat the World No. 3 7-6(5), 7-6(4) and reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final of the season and fourth of his career.

Goffin extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head series lead against Del Potro to 3-1 by reaching his fourth semi-final of the year and his first since April (Montpellier, Rotterdam, Barcelona).

Goffin lost his opener in three of his past four tournaments, but he started to turn it around at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., last month, reaching the quarter-finals before losing Greece’s #NextGenATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Hard courts have been good to Goffin over the years. He has won almost 63 per cent of his matches on the surface (147/234), his second best surface after clay.

As much as possible, Goffin tried to turn his quarter-final against Del Potro into a baseline sprint, keeping Del Potro moving from side to side and opening up the court well by targetting the Argentine’s backhand and then exposing the open forehand side.

Goffin was also keen on attacking the Argentine. He claimed the opener with a stick backhand volley, his ninth successful trip to the net of the set (12/14 for the match).

Del Potro broke back in the second set and had three set points at 5-4 with Goffin serving, but Goffin erased them all and the Belgian came back once more in the tie-break, winning seven of the final eight points to advance.

Goffin will next meet Roger Federer or Stan Wawrinka. Goffin beat Federer the last time they played to reach the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals title match, but Federer leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 6-1. Wawrinka has beaten Goffin three of the four times they’ve played.

They call it a ‘duck shot’. A term that hunters use when referring to the medium-heavy lead shot used for shooting water fowl.  A single shot will not kill you, but absorb a few at once and before you know it you are bleeding out. That is what it is like playing against South Korea’s Duckhee Lee. 

Lee does not possess the heavy artillery to take you down with a single stroke, but don’t let him pull the trigger on both barrels or you will be bending over like an overweight hiker in the Himalayas.  In many ways, the 20-year-old reminds me of a boxer who wins by throwing disciplined combination punches of jabs, body shots and crosses while depending on good footwork to get out of trouble. 

By now, everyone knows Lee is hearing impaired, but what still surprises them is how he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. While one of his five senses might be lacking, Lee compensates with the most extraordinary innate ability to anticipate the direction of an opponent’s shot before it is struck. 

Last year around this time, the Korean held an ATP Ranking of No. 160. It seemed as if he was on the fast track to stardom. But Lee has slipped a bit since then and as every player knows, defending results without the help of a big weapon is very hard. Tennis parents and fans often do not understand why. They tend to look at the rankings as an absolute indicator of the winners and losers. Thankfully, tennis is not played on paper.

When a player is climbing the ladder and winning matches with delayed pressure, where the ball bounces always seem to be in his favor. Because that is what tennis is, a game of inches. But the next year, said player is a marked man and the pressure to at least maintain their ATP Ranking is turned up to high heat. And like crabs in a pot of boiling water, lower ranked players take aim and try their best to pull him down. Without a big serve or forehand to get out of trouble, long points get tricky. Very soon the losses pile up and before a man realizes it, he has lost his confidence and starts doubting the very strategy that made him so good the year before.    

Here in Gwangju, Korea, locals say it is the hottest summer in 100 years. That might be the reason for all the empty cases of Cass beer bottles and Jinro soju stacked up high in the back alleys. There is hot and there is very hot. And then there is what we have this week; eye squinting, scorched earth, gut-check hot that makes a man question how bad he wants to grind out a long rally. This week, players have shown a tendency to check out down the line or try ill-advised drop shots to shorten the points. Heat is the great equalizer of tennis. This week, they have opened more bags of ice than cans of tennis balls and ATP Supervisor Greg Wojcik had to change the daily start time for each match till the afternoon to avoid the dangerous noon sun. 

View Draw

There are some fine tennis players here who have good power and fluid strokes, and then there are some great competitors who win more matches with their head, heart and legs than a first serve. Which brings me to the third seed, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. Last year, the 21-year-old Kazakh held an impressive ATP Ranking of No. 95. Today, he sits at No. 239. Standing at 6’5”, he has a rocket of a serve. 

As we witnessed last week at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Chengdu, he is capable of serving 22 aces in a match. But in the same match, he also served 21 double faults. On Wednesday, Bublik managed to scratch out a second-round win against Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe. 

Photo Credit: Jean-Philippe Fleurian

This week is special for Lock, as he got his first win in the main draw at an ATP Challenger Tour event against Yunseong Chung of Korea. Watching Lock practice and play, I have no doubt that more wins are soon to follow. At 6’6”, Lock stands ramrod straight and with a shock of blonde hair that will make you do a double take. Big Ben looks you straight in the eyes, says ‘thank you’ and ‘yes, sir’ and he doesn’t fidget with his phone or blow off serious topics. His grandparents played competitive tennis and so did his parents. 

Like Byron Black and Wayne Black, they also had a grass court at their family owned farm outside of Harare. But unlike the Black family, when the government changed and land reform policies took effect, the Lock family lost it all. Two years ago, I was in Harare and visited the Locks at their home in the suburbs. Over beers and barbeque, I listened to Benjamin’s father tell the story. Mr. Lock has lived a life of have and have not, but he does not live in the past. Full credit to Benjamin, his brother Courtney John and the entire Lock family for maintaining a rugged determination to play professional tennis under very tough conditions. Like life, nobody said tennis was fair and you don’t get those precious ATP Ranking points without working hard. You got to earn them the hard way and that is something that the Lock family understands. 

Rain nor defending champion Grigor Dimitrov were able to stop Novak Djokovic from continuing his pursuit of a first Western & Southern Open title.

The former World No. 1 returned to the court Friday with a break lead in the third set after rain halted play Thursday evening, maintaining that advantage to defeat the Bulgarian 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Djokovic continues his push for the one ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title he has not yet won, despite reaching the final five times in Cincinnati. He now owns 29 victories at the event, passing former World No.1 Lleyton Hewitt for the most at the tournament in the Open Era without lifting the trophy.

The Serbian has been victorious in 24 of his past 28 matches after a 6-6 start to the 2018 campaign. But for a moment on Thursday, it appeared that Djokovic would be leaving Cincinnati early, trailing Dimitrov by a set and a break, with little rhythm from the baseline. The Serbian did not let the reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion run away with the match, though, digging in and significantly cutting down his number of unforced errors, using his backhand down the line to great effect.

Dimitrov was trying to build off the momentum of a quarter-final showing at the Rogers Cup, and was also pursuing his third Top 10 victory of the season.

It’s going to be a busy Friday at the Western & Southern Open as the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament plays catch-up because of rain. Ten singles matches are scheduled, encompassing the completion of the third round and quarter-finals, in addition to three second-round doubles clashes.

Five-time runner-up and No. 10 seed Novak Djokovic, looking to become the first player to win all nine Masters 1000 tournaments this week, resumes his third-round match against Grigor Dimitrov at 2-6, 6-3, 2-1 on Center. The winner will challenge Canada’s Milos Raonic later on Friday. Djokovic leads Raonic 8-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, while Dimitrov has a 3-2 advantage over Raonic. 

Djokovic has won his past five matches against fifth seed Dimitrov and all four of their hard-court meetings (leads 7-1 overall). Dimitrov has two Top 10 wins this year – both over Goffin – as he continues to find the kind of early-season form that helped him to the Australian Open quarter-finals (l. to Edmund) and a 10-3 start.

Djokovic, the 2008-09, 2011-12 and 2015 finalist, is seeking his 30th match win in Cincinnati (29-11) and has won 23 of his past 27 matches, including his fourth trophy at Wimbledon (d. Anderson). Having beaten Adrian Mannarino in the second round, the Serbian star admitted, “I’m still looking for that consistency. I think it’s quite important as the matches get tougher now and the opponents are higher-ranked. I am going to need that consistency and need to be solid and kind of hit with confidence.”

Second seed and seven-time champion Roger Federer aims to secure his 20th hard-court match win of 2018 (31-4 overall) against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina with the possibility of an all-Swiss quarter-final on the horizon against wild card Stan Wawrinka, who is returning to peak form following two knee surgeries last year. Wawrinka will first need to overcome Marton Fucsovics, also in a late night show court encounter.

Third seed Juan Martin del Potro, who beat Hyeon Chung 6-2, 6-3 before rain suspended play on Thursday prepares to face No. 15 seed Nick Kyrgios in a first-time third round clash. Del Potro, competing at a career-high of No. 3 in the ATP Rankings this week, has a 37-9 match record on the year, which includes 15 straight matches wins – including the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC (d. Anderson) and the BNP Paribas Open (d. Federer). World No. 18 Kyrgios has a 1-5 mark against Top 10 opponents in 2018.

Kevin Anderson, who is currently in sixth position in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, takes a 34-12 season record (22-6 on hard courts) into his clash against No. 11 seed Goffin, runner-up at The O2 season finale in London last year, in a first-time meeting. Goffin, who came into the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament with a 2-5 record since falling in the Roland Garros fourth round (l. to Cecchinato), has earned confidence-boosting victories over last week’s Rogers Cup finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and Benoit Paire in Cincinnati this week. Del Potro or Goffin will play Del Potro or Kyrgios.

Elsewhere, seventh seed and 2016 titlist Marin Cilic is level with Karen Khachanov of Russia at 7-6(5), 3-6, 1-1 in their third-round match carried over from Thursday. The victor will meet No. 13 seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Robin Haase in the third round.