The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsIt is no secret that Rafael Nadal has had a very tough 2015 to date, he was well beaten in the quarter-finals of both the Australian and French Open. He’s slipped down to number 10 in the world, his lowest ranking for a long time.
His victory in the Mercedes Cup will be a timely confidence boost ahead of Wimbledon, but his current ranking will mean he could have a very tough route to the final. He could find himself having to play Djokovic or Murray as early as the quarter-finals as had to do so recently at Roland Garros.
Towards the end of last year Andy Murray was in a similar predicament to Rafa where he’d slipped down to number 11 in the rankings, but he played as many tournaments as possible, picking up lots of ranking points along the way and started climbing back up towards the top 4.
It is arguably something Nadal should do (injury dependent of course), and if he can get a tournament win or two under his belt his confidence will rise up and we could see the Rafa of old again. Luckily Rafa doesn’t have too many points to defend at Wimbledon and the US Open, so if he can progress to the latter stages of either tournament he will pick up some valuable points and rise back up to where his talent belongs.
If Nadal can stay fit for the remainder of the season, he should get a few tournament victories and will be back amongst the top 4 in no time and we could yet see the Spanish star add to his tally of 14 major titles.
