French Open champion Rafael Nadal has returned to No 1 in the ATP rankings 11 months after relinquising it to Roger Federer, but the Spaniard insists winning his seventh grand slam means more to him.
"Believe me, I am very happy" about getting back to the top, Nadal said after beating Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in Sunday's French Open final. But the 24-year-old Spaniard also made perfectly clear that he was more excited about winning his seventh Grand Slam title than his new ranking.
"When I was crying after the match," he said, "the last thing I was thinking (about was) No1."
Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach, agreed.
"Being No 1 is nice after the tournament," Toni Nadal said, "but the most important thing is the trophy."
Nadal's promotion to the top spot brings and end to Federer's campaign of tying Pete Sampras' career record of 286 weeks at No 1 - the Swiss player was just one week off the achievement.
Federer won last year's French Open, but he lost to Soderling in the quarterfinals last week.
Soderling's second consecutive runner-up finish at Roland Garros — he also was the player who stunned Nadal in 2009 — allowed him to rise one place to a career-high No 6.
"This was very, very important for the rest of the season, to build a little bit of confidence and to be able to play better and better for every match." said Soderling's coach, Magnus Norman.
"Because he was tense going in. The last couple of weeks before the French, he was talking a lot about how many (rankings) points he has to defend."
Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko complete the top five.
The French Open also saw Andy Roddick climb one spot to seventh and reigning US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro slide two notches to eighth. He missed the French Open due to injury.
Men's rankings as of Monday June 7:
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