Rafa Nadal moves up the world rankings as he wins his first Cincinnati title

Rafael Nadal’s resurgent 2013 campaign continued this evening with a 7-6(8), 7-6(3) victory over John Isner to clinch his maiden Cincinnati title. Nadal claimed a 26th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and ninth overall in 2013 with the win.

The Spaniard extended his career-best hard court winning streak to 15-0 in 2013, while joining Novak Djokovic as the only players to win five Masters 1000 crowns in a single year. After hoisting the trophy in Montreal last week, this marks the first time Nadal has won back-to-back hard court title in consecutive weeks.



The last man to do Montreal and Cincinnati Masters double was Roddick in 2003, and he also went on to win the US Open that year ( Agassi did it before him).

Yes, even Federer/ Djokovic/ Murray haven't been able to do this double, ever. This just tells how difficult and amazing these back to back Hard court Masters wins are for Rafa!

Hopefully, he can follow up these incredible wins with the US Open trophy which starts in a week time. That would be the most sumptuous cherry on top of this yummy cake that Rafa has baked.

The win will also see the 27 year old move up to number 2 when the new ATP world rankings are released tomorrow and all things being equal, if he wins the last Grand slam of the year then he will most likely topple Novak Djokovic as world number 1.