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Federer tumbles while Nadal rumbles on

01/08/2008

Roger Federer has been knocked out of the Cincinnati Masters in the third round, meaning Rafael Nadal now has the chance to usurp him at the top of the world rankings.

The Swiss star, who lost 7-6 6-4 7-6 to Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, has been the world number one for a record 234 consecutive weeks - around four-and-a-half years.

But he will be overtaken by Nadal when the next rankings are released on Monday if the Spaniard wins the tournament in Ohio.

He easily secured his passage to the quarter-finals yesterday with a 6-4 7-6 victory over Tommy Haas - Nadal's 31st consecutive victory on the ATP Tour.

In previous years Federer has looked almost unbeatable, winning five straight Wimbledon titles between 2003 and 2007, as well as reaching ten consecutive grand slam finals up until the 2008 Australian Open.

However, his semi-final defeat down under to world number three Novak Djokovic seemed to herald the end of Federer's aura of invincibility and he went on to lose a series of matches in the earlier rounds of tournaments this season.

He bounced back with a run to the finals of the French Open and at Wimbledon, but Nadal was unofficially heralded by pundits everywhere as the world's best player - even without the official ranking to prove it - after beating the Swiss on both clay and grass.