Rafael Nadal exited in the fourth round of Wimbledon 2017 on Monday, losing to Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in a classic match at the All England Club. The result takes one of the tournament favorites out of the draw as Nadal was expected to do better than the fourth round at Wimbledon 2017. For Muller, he's into the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam for the first time in nine years. The result also helps Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic in regard to the race for the World No. 1 ranking on the ATP Tour.
Murray likely to remain top ranked
Pre-tournament, Stan Wawrinka, Murray, Djokovic, and Nadal all had a chance to become or remain the No.
1 player. Wawrinka's hopes were dashed in the first round and, with Murray doing well enough to make the quarters, Nadal's hopes were dashed on Monday. At this point, it's still possible that Djokovic should overtake the top spot on tour. However, Murray is certainly in the driver's seat when it comes the to race for No. 1 in the rankings that will immediately follow Wimbledon.
Basically in, order for Djokovic to have hopes to get to No. 1, he would need to win the tournament outright. At present, he and Adrian Mannarino are the players left alive at Wimbledon 2017 that are furthest removed from the title in terms of where they are in the draw. The fourth round was almost entirely completed on Monday with the exception of Djokovic's match against Mannarino.
Should the Serb defeat the French player on Tuesday, then he would have a draw through Tomas Berdych and then either Milos Raonic or Roger Federer just to make the final.
Murray to face Sam Querry next
Murray certainly doesn't have a slam dunk for a quarterfinal match. The Scot will next face Sam Querrey, the player that defeated Djokovic in the third round at last year's Wimbledon.
If Murray should beat Querrey then it would guarantee that the Scot would have enough ranking points to protect his place in the standings for the time being. The scenario where Murray loses top spot in the immediate aftermath of Wimbledon 2017 is where the Scot loses in the quarterfinals and Djokovic goes on to win the tournament.
In short, Murray is very likely to stay No. 1 at this point. Not only is he unlikely to lose in the quarters, but Djokovic is unlikely to win the title outright given the talent he has to outlast on his half of the draw just to make the final. Nadal was the player most likely to overtake the defending Wimbledon champion. As he went out of the draw on Monday, so went Murray's main threat in terms of rankings.
