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Rafael Nadal has been hailed by Tim Henman after he beat Jimmy Connors’ record for the most consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the ATP world rankings. Last week, Nadal beat Connors’ record of 789 straight weeks that he had held since 1988. And the Spaniard is likely to add a lot more to his current haul of 790 before hanging up his racket.
Nadal has been in the top 10 since winning the Barcelona Open in April 2005.
The 34-year-old equaled Roger Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles with victory at the French Open in October.
But Nadal is way ahead of his old rival when it comes to consecutive weeks in the top 10.
Federer is third on the list behind Connors and Nadal at 734 weeks.
The Swiss stayed in the top 10 for just over 14 years, more than a year less than Nadal.
And former British number one Henman says Nadal’s achievement is all the more impressive given the number of injuries he has suffered throughout his career.
“It’s a phenomenal accomplishment, but to me, what makes it more surprising is that he’s had injury issues,” Henman said on Amazon Prime Video.
“There have been a lot of times where he’s been out for three, four, five months, either on the knee or on the wrist.
“So you would think that the way the qualifying system works, with the points being held for 52 weeks, there would be periods where you lose a lot of qualifying points, but that has not been the case.”
Former Australian Open semi-finalist Daniela Hantuchova says it’s possibly one of Nadal’s greatest accomplishments.
Hantuchova said: “Of course I can’t speak for Rafa, but for me that would be something very special and one of the records that I think I would appreciate the most because he shows such incredible consistency over such a long period of time.”
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