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Rafael Nadal has taken the lead in the ATP Race To London, following another sensational European clay-court swing that culminated in him lifting an 11th Roland Garros trophy.

Two months ago, the Spaniard superstar found himself in 40th position in the ATP Race To London on 360 points (9 April), but Nadal is now first on 5,040 points, 1,545 points ahead of second-placed Alexander Zverev (3,495).

The 32-year-old Nadal went 26-1 on the clay swing, which included 11th titles at both the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters (d. Nishikori) and the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (d. Tsitsipas), in addition to an eighth trophy at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (d. Zverev) and Roland Garros. His lone loss came to Dominic Thiem in the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals.

Nadal is bidding to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, which will be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November, for the 14th straight year. He has reached the title match on two occasions in 2010 and 2013, from eight appearances.

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Season Finale Appearances For Current Race's Top 8 (as of 11 June 2018)


PLAYER ATP RACE TO LONDON POINTS SEASON FINALE APPEARANCES
1ST RAFAEL NADAL 5,040 8
2ND ALEXANDER ZVEREV 3,495 1
3RD ROGER FEDERER 3,110 15
4TH JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO 3,020 4
5TH DOMINIC THIEM 3,925 2
6TH MARIN CILIC 2,370 3
7TH KEVIN ANDERSON 1,620 0
8TH JOHN ISNER 1,500 0
Zverev, who is 34-9 overall on the year — having been 8-4 after his first four events — is well placed to qualify for the season finale for the second time. In successive weeks, the 21-year-old German captured titles at the BMW Open by FWU (d. Kohlschreiber), his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at the Mutua Madrid Open (d. Thiem) and finished runner-up in Rome.

Roger Federer, the six-time former Nitto ATP Finals champion, makes a welcome return to action this week for the first time since 23 March, at the MercedesCup. In third place in the ATP Race To London with 3,110 points, the Swiss superstar now has a small lead over fourth-placed Juan Martin del Potro (3,020) and 2018 ATP World Tour match wins leader Thiem (2,985). Del Potro, who reached the Roland Garros semi-finals for the second time (also 2009), and first-time Grand Slam championship finalist Thiem are more than 600 points clear of Marin Cilic (2,370), who sits in sixth position after a semi-final run in Rome and a quarter-final exit in Paris.

Interestingly, only 565 points then separate 12 players, from seventh-placed Kevin Anderson (1,620) — who is attempting to qualify for the first time — to Novak Djokovic, the five-time former Nitto ATP Finals champion, who is 19th (1,055).

Among the group are 10th-placed Diego Schwartzman (1,365), who lost to Nadal in the Roland Garros quarter-finals, and Marco Cecchinato, at 13th after a 30-spot rise (1,287). Cecchinato followed on from capturing his first ATP World Tour title at the Gazprom Hungarian Open (d. Millman), by beating David Goffin (No. 18, 1,135) and Djokovic en route to the semi-finals in Paris (l. to Thiem).

John Isner (No. 9, 1,500), last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung (No. 10, 1380) and 2017 Nitto ATP Finals titlist Grigor Dimitrov (No. 11, 1,365) are all within striking distance of Anderson with a strong showing on the grass-court swing.

ATPWorldTour.com looks at how the ATP Race To London is shaping up
After the third Grand Slam of the season, the group of contenders in the ATP Race To London is becoming clearer, with Wimbledon finalists Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson putting themselves in good position to earn a spot at The O2 in London from 11-18 November.

Five-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Djokovic has found some of his best form, claiming his fourth title at the All England Club on Sunday to soar into fifth place in the Race with 3,355 points.

The Serbian began his season with a 6-6 record, and sat in 75th place in the Race just two months ago. But thanks to a hot streak during which he has triumphed in 19 of his past 22 matches, Djokovic has added 3,020 points, making up 90 per cent of his total.

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Only one player has tallied more points than Djokovic during those two months, and that’s Race leader Rafael Nadal, who is in first place with 5,760 points. The Spaniard, who recently captured his 11th Roland Garros trophy, reached the semi-finals at the All England Club for the first time since 2011, gaining a 1,740-point lead over second-placed Roger Federer.

Federer is still in great position to qualify for the season finale for the 16th time in 17 years. The Swiss advanced to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the 16th time, earning 720 points.

Anderson also solidified his standing in the hopes of booking his spot at The O2 for the first time. While the South African dropped one spot to eighth with 2,820 points due to Djokovic’s 10-spot climb, Anderson is now 600 points clear of ninth-placed John Isner, who also seeks his first Nitto ATP Finals berth.

Before The Championships, there were 13 players within 585 points of Anderson, who was then in seventh. Last season, when the 6’8” right-hander reached the US Open final, Anderson finished 14th in the Race with 2,480 points. Jack Sock, the final qualifier, earned 2,765 points.

While Alexander Zverev was upset in the third round on the hallowed grass, he remains third with 3,585 points. The German is 205 points ahead of Juan Martin del Potro (3,380 points), who hopes to make an appearance at the season finale for the first time since 2013. The Argentine lost against Nadal in the Wimbledon quarter-finals in five sets.

Austrian Dominic Thiem is in sixth with 2,995 points and Croatian Marin Cilic is in seventh with 2,915 points.

Miami Open presented by Itau titlist Isner, who advanced to the semi-finals at SW19 — losing 26-24 in the fifth set against Anderson — dropped one spot to ninth, but is 610 points ahead of his nearest competition, Kei Nishikori.

International tender process opens

The ATP, governing body of men’s professional tennis, has announced the opening of an international tender process to determine the future location of the ATP World Tour’s season finale, the Nitto ATP Finals, beyond 2020.

The Nitto ATP Finals is the year-end climax to the men's professional tennis season, featuring only the world's best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams as they battle it out for the last title of the season and the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.

The prestigious season-ending tournament is to be held at The O2 in London through to 2020, where it has been staged to wide acclaim since 2009. The event has successfully established itself as one of the major annual sporting events worldwide, with more than 250,000 fans attending the event annually, and global viewership figures reaching an average of 95 million viewers each year.

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Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “Our season-ending tournament has been a remarkable success story since it moved to London in 2009, and we look forward to continuing the tournament’s growth over the next three years at The O2 through to 2020.

“The tournament’s popularity and stature have reached unprecedented heights in London, which has attracted significant interest from potential future host cities over the years. We feel the time is right to undertake this international tender process as we look to secure the event’s future beyond 2020. The O2 has set a very high bar, and we expect that staying in London beyond 2020 will also be among the options for consideration as we go through this process.”

The tournament was first held in Tokyo in 1970 and has been staged in some of the major cities around the world, including New York City, Sydney, and Shanghai. The season finale’s longest stay in a single venue was across 13 consecutive editions at Madison Square Garden from 1977-1989.

The ATP has chosen The Sport Business Group at Deloitte to manage the bid process, which begins from today with an expression of interest phase. Any interested parties must submit their official applications by 2 November 2018, after which a short list of potential candidate cities will be announced on Friday 14th December, with a final decision to come not before March 2019.

Any parties interested in submitting an expression of interest are invited to contact Deloitte at: atpfinals2021@deloitte.co.uk.

Spanish superstar books his place in London

Rafael Nadal becomes the first singles player to qualify for the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals, clinching his place in the elite field for a 14th straight year with his victory over Marin Cilic on Friday night in the Rogers Cup quarter-finals.

This November at The O2 in London, the Spaniard will attempt to add to a remarkable resume that includes four year-end No. 1 finishes, a record 32 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles and 17 Grand Slam trophies. Nadal, who made his tournament debut in 2006, reached the final in 2010 and ’13.

“It's my 14th qualification for the [Nitto ATP Finals] in a row, so it's great news,” he said.

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Nadal has been close to unbeatable since returning in April from a right hip injury to claim an ATP-best four titles. The World No. 1 triumphed at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell for a record 11th time each, contributing to his 50 straight sets won on clay – an Open Era record for a single surface. He followed with his second Masters 1000 title of the season at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. A week after his 32nd birthday, Nadal claimed a record 11th trophy at Roland Garros. En route to the title at the clay major, he became only the fifth player in the past 50 years to record 900 match wins. He improves to an impressive 38-3 season record, after reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon and, this week, in Toronto.

Nadal is looking to finish as the year-end No. 1 in consecutive years for the first time and for the fifth time overall, which would tie Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer on the leaderboard – one behind Pete Sampras. Next week, on 18 August, will mark 10 years since Nadal first rose to World No. 1.

Nadal and Federer have shared the No. 1 ATP Ranking throughout the 2018 season, and the Spaniard can extend his already-sizeable lead over the Swiss entering the Western & Southern Open should he win his fourth Rogers Cup title on Sunday. Federer, 37, returns to action next week at the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati.

Alexander Zverev, a winner of three ATP World Tour titles this season, is next in line to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. The 21-year-old German is followed in the ATP Race To London by six-time champion Federer, who will be aiming to make his 16th appearance at the season finale, and past qualifiers Juan Martin del Potro, Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem. Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson, who is aiming to qualify for the first time, began the week in the eighth position and will climb in the Race standings on Monday with his run in Toronto; he will play #NextGenATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas on Saturday for a place in his first Masters 1000 final.

The Nitto ATP Finals welcomes more than 250,000 fans to The O2 arena annually, as well as generating global viewership figures reaching an average of 95 million viewers each year, as the ATP’s best eight singles players and doubles teams compete over eight days at the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.