{"id":3905,"date":"2017-08-15T13:46:44","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T17:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=3905"},"modified":"2017-08-15T13:46:44","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T17:46:44","slug":"who-end-year-number-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2017\/08\/15\/who-end-year-number-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will End the Year as World Number One?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The tennis season is nearly over with the <strong>US Open<\/strong> the only Grand Slam left for players to fight for.<\/p>\n<p>It has been an unusual year so far as none of the top four have dominated tournaments. This has been down to injuries, age and just a bad run of form for some players.<\/p>\n<p>So with not many <strong>Masters<\/strong> tournaments and only the US Open left, before the <strong>World Tour Finals<\/strong> take place in<strong> London<\/strong>; who will finish the season as world number one?<\/p>\n<h3>Andy Murray<\/h3>\n<p>The British No.1 has not played at his best this season and results have followed suit. He started off the season at the Australian Open with a shock exit in round-16 to German <strong>Mischa Zverev<\/strong>. Murray&#8217;s bad form continued at <strong>Indian Wells<\/strong> losing in the second round followed by an early exit in the last 16 at the <strong>Monte-Carlo Masters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A semi-final appearance in <strong>Barcelona<\/strong> seemed to show a turn in Murray&#8217;s season, but failed to do so. The two-time <strong>Wimbledon<\/strong> winner lost in Round 16 in<strong> Madrid<\/strong> to young talent <strong>Borna Coric<\/strong>, before <strong>Fabio Fognini<\/strong> handed another early exit to Murray in the Rome masters.<br \/>\n<a id=\"yUN5oezeS4JItSMH455U0A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/813280896\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'yUN5oezeS4JItSMH455U0A',sig:'5CsEG0RGGUJizrXEM8cZSoB8n9Qf4xh6eQOrihFbO_g=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'813280896',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nRoland Garros showed the real talent of the 30-year-old as he reached the semi-finals, losing a five set epic to <strong>Stanislas Wawrinka<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>His grass season wasn&#8217;t as fruitful though with a first round exit at <strong>Queens<\/strong> followed by a quarter-final loss to <strong>Sam Querrey<\/strong> at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n<p>Murray has struggled with injury throughout the year and is now taking time out to recover. He may not make an appearance at the US Open, which will undoubtedly make it unlikely the Scot\u00a0will finish the year as number one.<\/p>\n<h3>Roger Federer<\/h3>\n<p>The Swiss has only played in eight tournaments this year, making it a strange season for the 19-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n<p>However, his performances have been the opposite. Federer has excelled once again, winning Wimbledon and the <strong>Australian Open<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<a id=\"jKqU5jM-QKZ7jf47p_CHBg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/831134206\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'jKqU5jM-QKZ7jf47p_CHBg',sig:'xjx62ZvggYZ3lZfJ3vn8fAv_mqVDACFXjA6iKox6Iy0=',w:'594px',h:'446px',items:'831134206',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nThe 36-year-old also won Indian Wells, Miami and <strong>Halle<\/strong>. Demonstrating age is but a number and that he can push for the number one spot, despite currently being World No.2.<\/p>\n<p>Federer is only 605 points behind Murray, suggesting everything is still to play for going into the last few months of the season. Making it seem that the Swiss is battling with <strong>Rafael Nadal<\/strong> for top spot for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n<h3>Rafael Nadal<\/h3>\n<p>The Spaniard&#8217;s year has been mixed so far. In the early stages of the season Nadal reached the final of the Australian Open as well as in\u00a0<span class=\"tourney-location\"><strong>Acapulco<\/strong> and Miami. The 15-time Grand Slam winner then won in Monte- Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<a id=\"1neeGU7MRxtBa2dLF-IsZQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/829586506\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'1neeGU7MRxtBa2dLF-IsZQ',sig:'JAIS5ugXFE_l1PJcYx-O61fCvDCu0b214i5lRSCUVfg=',w:'594px',h:'446px',items:'829586506',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nA victory in Roland Garros cemented his legendary status on the clay, but it has gone downhill since then. Nadal exited Wimbledon in round-16 after being tipped as a favourite. Followed by a defeat to youngster <strong>Denis Shapovalov<\/strong> in <strong>Montreal<\/strong> last week.<\/p>\n<p>The 10-time French Open champion has only lost eight times this year and will be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2017\/08\/14\/rafael-nadal-return-world-number-one-next-week\/\" target=\"_self\">number one in the world next week<\/a>. However, he has to up his game in the hard court season in order to stay at the peak of the tennis rankings come the end of the season.<\/p>\n<h3>Novak Djokovic<\/h3>\n<p>This year has not been kind to the Serbian. He may have won two titles in <strong>Qatar<\/strong> and <strong>Eastbourne<\/strong>, but injuries have held him back.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic exited the Australian Open in round-64, which set the tone for his Grand Slam performances, losing in Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the quarter-finals.<br \/>\n<a id=\"EuehczK1QbV9jMsnHU2U9A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/813359236\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'EuehczK1QbV9jMsnHU2U9A',sig:'eT9D7hY7W8Z8Pu9Jh4C5ZowcKLbNQMm9lt76pmjCxuU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'813359236',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nThe 12-time Grand Slam champion did reach the final in Rome and the semi finals in Madrid, but his high standards of last year have not been reached.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of his latest elbow injury he announced he wouldn&#8217;t be at the US Open. This certainly confirms he won&#8217;t be world number one at the end of the year and may even drop out of the top six soon enough.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"6ggBuVTlQDN7GtbH-uWyiQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/663825380\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'6ggBuVTlQDN7GtbH-uWyiQ',sig:'cdZhznY_8X5qRhiWiQFXHSsLZ9UzIw1bbw2e045qy7M=',w:'594px',h:'340px',items:'663825380',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tennis season is nearly over with the US Open the only Grand Slam left for players to fight for. It has been an unusual year so far as none of the top four have dominated tournaments. This has been down to injuries, age and just a bad run of form for some players. So [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2118,"featured_media":3932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[16,52,1656,22,135,114,43],"class_list":["post-3905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-us-open","tag-andy-murray","tag-grand-slam","tag-montreal","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-roger-federer","tag-us-open"],"modified_by":"Sam Barker (Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}