Home » Rafael Nadal will probably end 2022 as the year’s top-ranked player, predicts Daniil Medvedev

World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev claims that he approaches every match with the intention of winning it, but he acknowledges that Rafael Nadal will probably end the season in first place. Medvedev, who rose to the top seat for the first time in late February, faces a two-week threat of losing it.

Medvedev will defend his 1,000-point lead at the Montreal Masters despite only being 775 points ahead of Alexander Zverev. Zverev won’t be competing in Montreal because he has an ankle issue, but he could easily take Medvedev’s spot if the Russian falls behind early in Montreal.

Since Nadal doesn’t have any points to defend after this week, Medvedev and Zverev have a lot of points to defend throughout the course of the year, while Nadal doesn’t, the Spaniard has the best chance of finishing the year ranked first.

“I’m definitely keeping an eye on [the competition for No. 1] a little bit,” Medvedev said to the ATP website. “Depends also on the moment because I know that towards the end of the year, unless I try to win every tournament left, Rafa [Nadal] is probably going to be [year-end No.

However, if I play well here in the [North American hard-court swing], I feel like I can keep it for a good while.

Medvedev: The key is to succeed in competitions

“I realize that the most crucial thing is to attempt to win those competitions and points,” Medvedev continued.

Then [World No. 1] is yours to keep. Medvedev will attempt to win this week’s ATP competition in Los Cabos before moving on to Montreal. In Los Cabos, Medvedev receives a first-round bye before facing either a qualifier or wildcard Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez.

Every opponent can be challenging, so the more games you win, the more confidence you get, the more you start understanding your game and what you have to do better, so that’s what I’m going to attempt to achieve here in Los Cabos.