Nadal has three years to reach big milestone left by Federer

Rafael Nadal has the chance to outlast Roger Federer and become the player with the most weeks in the top 100 but he'll need to play for quite a while to get it.

Nadal hasn't played since the Australian Open due to a hip injury that cut short his stay there. The hope is to return in Monte-Carlo next week or perhaps Barcelona later. It doesn't really matter for this particular milestone because Nadal is in pursuit of Federer as the player who spent the most weeks in the top 100. The Swiss ace spent 1161 weeks ranked inside the top 100 before finally dropping out and Nadal is currently at 1020.

Outlasting Federer in that regard will take a while as he would need to play at least two more years and probably one year after that without dropping out of the top 100. It's certainly not a goal that Nadal would care much about and certainly wouldn't base his career choices on but it's in the play.

He's already got the milestone of spending the most number of consecutive weeks inside the top 10 but the hip injury ultimately ended that incredible streak.