The ATP rankings definitely felt different on Monday morning and that's because the top 10 no longer featured Rafael Nadal.
With Nadal being unable to defend his 600 points from winning the Indian Wells Open last year due to injury, it meant the Spaniard dropped down to 13 in the rankings.
As a result, he is also out of the top 10 for the first time since April 2005. For context to further emphasize just how impressive that run was, the likes of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer never had a run as long as that, with the former being outside the top 10 as recently as 2018.
For further context, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James had just earned his first All-Star selection at the time Nadal initially entered the top 10. Today, LeBron has 19 All-Star selections and recently surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
One big reason why Nadal dropped out of the top 10 was because of points being stripped away from Wimbledon. The 36-year-old notably made the semifinals last year and if not for that, would have kept his place.
It wasn't all bad news for Spaniards, though. Nadal's heir apparent in Carlos Alcaraz won the Indian Wells Open and reclaimed his No. 1 spot from Novak Djokovic in the process.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal isn't expected to be out for much longer. The 22-time Grand Slam winner is expected to be back in action for the Monte Carlo Masters which commence April 8. Nadal, an 11-time winner at Monte Carlo, notably won the tournament eight consecutive times from 2005 to 2012.
However, he was eliminated by Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals last year.
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