Where will Rafael Nadal potentially be ranked on his return to action likely in 2024?

Rafael Nadal won't be playing tennis for a while with the Spaniar'ds return expected sometime in 2024 if his body heals and permits it to happen.

The Spaniard injured his hip at the 2023 Australian Open being unable to play for many months after that. There were rumours about him returning at Roland Garros but a press conference was called before the event where he announced that he won't play at Roland Garros. He also announced that he doesn't know when he will return and whether he will return this year at all.

He also anounced the 2024 season will be his last one, sort of like a farewell Tour. Him not playing at Roland Garros will lose him all of the 2,000 points he earned at the event last year. That will see him drop out of the top 100 for the first time in over many years. It was only recently that Nadal also left the top 10 for the first time since he entered it almost two decades ago.

He will lose all of his points if he doesn't play this year at all and that will see him drop quite a bit on the rankings. All of his points will come off so he will be technically unrakned until he wins a point. That will likely happen at this first event but until then we'll a rankings withouth Nadal, something that hasn't been pretty much since he's been in tennis.

It just signals the end of an era as most of us know tennis only with Nadal.