In 2024 Rafael Nadal – the strongest left-handed participant within the historical past of tennis – ended his profession within the Davis Cup on the Malaga Finals, retired.
However what emerges from an evaluation of the ATP rating speaks clearly a few specific statistic: no left-handed participant is at the moment current within the top-10 of world males’s tennis. And the presence of left-handed gamers within the top-100 just isn’t significantly quite a few.
The information, referring to the ATP rating on the finish of the yr this week, speaks of 88 right-handed gamers within the prime 100 on this planet, in comparison with 12 gamers who maintain the racket with the left hand.
However let’s evaluation the one 12 left-handed gamers who’re current within the elite of world tennis. As I stated above, no left-handed participant is current within the prime ten of the world rankings. To search out the primary left-handed participant, you must get to quantity 14 ATP with the Frenchman Ugo Humbert. Not far behind at ATP quantity 15 is the British Jack Draper. Then follows the American Ben Shelton, now ranked at quantity 21.
Shelton© @atptour X account
Then there may be the Chilean participant Alejandro Tabilo, quantity 23 within the rating. Then comes the British Cameron Norrie at quantity 49 on this planet and Juncheng Shang at quantity 50.
It’s subsequently a predominance of right-handed tennis gamers, who’re clearly greater than left-handed tennis gamers. Additionally it is true that the best consultant of this specialty has simply given his farewell to tennis, and one wonders if within the close to future there will probably be a left-handed champion who, like Rafa, will dominate tennis.
Among the many strongest and most well-known left-handed gamers within the historical past of males’s tennis, we must always point out – along with Nadal, after all – John McEnroe, Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Guillermo Vilas and Thomas Muster.
