Chalk it up to the strange, blue clay. Rafa Nadal lost to Fernando Verdasco (a bad loss since he was up 5-2 in the 3rd set and he had never lost to Verdasco in their previous 13 - or is it 14? - meetings) in the third round of the Madrid Masters. With Roger Federer winning the title after taking out Thomas Berdych in the final, he edges out Rafa Nadal for the #2 ranking.
This is not good news. Rafa still has more points to defend than Federer leading up to the French Open, which means Rafa is almost certain to be seeded 3rd for Roland Garros. If this happens, there is a chance Rafa runs into Novak Djokovic in the semis. And while Rafa finally snapped his 7-match losing streak to Novak in Monte Carlo a few weeks ago, I'd still prefer that Rafa run into Novak in the final instead of in the semis. Of course, even if he is ranked #3, there is still a 50% chance that Rafa meets Federer in the semis instead. Hope that happens.
I do hope that Rafa can regroup in time for Rome and Paris. I guess mentally he can blame the loss on the strange court surface and he can be happy about the fact that he already has two red clay titles this year - Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Those wins also cemented Rafa's status as the best clay court player in history as he is the only player to have won an ATP event eight times (Monte Carlo, and he did that consecutively!). He is also the only player to win an ATP event seven times (Barcelona). No other player in history has won a title more than 6 times so his 7 Barcelona titles and 8 Monte Carlo trophies are an achievement that may never be matched again. In any case, I'm definitely keeping my hopes up that Rafa can win the French Open again.
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