2013 Starring Rafael Nadal And Serena Williams

Lawn Tennis, Ace Tennis Magazine, Lawn Tennis Magazine

2013 Starring Rafael Nadal And Serena Williams
By Burton Vanderfliet, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Saturday, January 11, 2014 1:30pm PST USA

LOS ANGELES-- Rafael Nadal of Spain and Serena Williams of the USA both recaptured their tennis tours' world number one rankings while dominating professional tennis last year in the process.

Nadal opened 2013 with a February return from a 2012 knee surgery which saw his ATP Tour ranking drop out of the top five. Upon his return, the Spaniard reached the final round of his first six tournaments of 2013 while winning his first four tournaments.

Then later in the year as the summer heated up, Nadal

Serena Williams of the USA and Rafael Nadal of Spain

Serena Williams finished 2013 with more WTA Tour rankings points than Na Li and Maria Sharapova combined.

also turned up the heat on the ATP Tour; as he won the French Open and the US Open before finishing the year with a ATP Tour high two grand slam titles.

Nadal regained the number one ranking in September from Novak Djokovic of Serbia and finished the year with more ATP Tour rankings points than would number three David Ferrer of Spain and world number four Andy Murray of Great Britain combined.

But not to be outdone, world number one Serena Williams also finished 2013 with more WTA Tour rankings points than the then world number three Na Li of China and the then number four Maria Sharapova of Russia combined.

Williams last year enjoyed one of her most successful years on the WTA Tour ever as she rebounded from an ankle injury at January’s 2013 Australian Open to win the French Open and the US Open. In October Williams regained the WTA Tour’s number one ranking once again after first reaching the top ranking in July of 2002 at age 20.

And with 17 singles grand slam titles to her credit, the American looks destined this year to equal her fellow Americans and tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova who are both tied at 18 career singles grand slam titles each.