INDIAN WELLS − 20-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer, who had announced that he will take the rest of the season off to nurse another injury after his Wimbledon campaign, is now certain to drop out of the world’s top ten for the first time since 2017.
Although the 40-year-old athlete admitted the “worst” is behind him in a telling update to fans in September, a return date to tennis is still not clear.
Taking time off from tennis inevitably comes with it a drop in rankings, but Roger’s lack of tournaments over the past two years will now see him slide even further.
Hubert Hurkacz’s win over Frances Tiafoe at Indian Wells, which officially puts Roger out of the top ten, is ironic, considering that he was the last man to defeat the Swiss maestro back at Wimbledon.
However, Roger’s drop off in the rankings could just be the start as the tennis ace could drop as low as world number 17, seeing that he dropped 500 points at the Basel Open and a further 400 points after missing the ATP Finals series.
This will be his lowest ranking since 2001, and with the frozen rankings system being scaled back, Roger is set to lose a fair chunk of points over the next few weeks.
That’s not the worst of it as a number of players could overtake him come year end, namely Felix Auger-Aliassime, Jannick Sinner, Diego Schwartzmann and Denis Shapovalov.
This is the fourth time in the Swiss maestro’s illustrious career that he has been knocked out of the top ten − twice way back in 2002 and once in 2016.
Unfortunately, at the ripe old age of 40, and with less tournaments under his belt as time goes on, this drop could very well be a permanent one for the tennis star, who appears unlikely to ever enter the top ten again in his career. – Agencies, October 14, 2021
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