With Roger Federer steamrolling over the Serb Novak Djokovic at ATP World Tour Finals 2019, the Spaniard ace Rafael Nadal concluded the year as ATP’s World Number one. In the midst of the year-end tournament in London, Nadal and Djokovic’s race to the year-end World Number one was heating up. And once again after the ATP Cup and before the commencement of Australian Open 2020, the battle for the summit has reignited.

At present, World Number one Rafael Nadal is 515 ATP points ahead of Novak Djokovic. The Serb is resting on the second spot with 9,720 ATP points and Rafa has 10,235 points.

How can Rafael Nadal stay on top?

To stay on the apex of ATP’s ladder Nadal needs to reach at least the semifinals of Australian Open 2020. By doing so he will earn 720 points and his ATP points would sum up to 9,755. In this case, even if Djokovic defends his Australian Open title, the Serb cannot re-established himself on the top, as his ATP points total would aggregate to 9,720 points and i.e., 35 points less than Nadal.

How can Novak Djokovic return to the top?

If Nadal happens to be a quarterfinal upset at Aussie Open, he will leave Melbourne a total of 9,395 points. In this scenario, if Djokovic manages to lift his eighth Australian Open title, he will return to the World Number one spot. In a nutshell, if Nadal fails to defend his finalist spot and loses prior to the semifinals, Djokovic needs to defend his Australian Open crown to become the World Number one tennis player.

Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic: World Number one scenarios at Australian Open 2020

In 2019, Novak Djokovic slipped from ATP’s summit after failing to defend his title in Shanghai. He lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals of Shanghai Masters and gifted the top-spot to Nadal after Djokovic’s Masters 1000 title win in Paris.