Rafael Nadal can take back the World No. 2 ranking from Daniil Medvedev by reaching Monte Carlo final

Daniil Medvedev tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, which forced him to withdraw from the Monte Carlo Masters. The Russian had also been in direct contact with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic just prior to his test, bringing both the legends under the scanner too.

But if Nadal and Djokovic end up testing negative for the virus, they would get a significant rankings assist by Medvedev's exit from the tournament. In particular, Nadal now has a great chance to take back the World No. 2 ranking - which he had lost to the Russian a few weeks ago.

ATP #2 Daniil Medvedev tests positive for COVID, knocking him out of the Monte Carlo Masters. This is the highest-profile player tennis has had test positive mid-event, and will hurt his efforts to close the gap on the #1 ranking. pic.twitter.com/bcNAi8EzVs

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) April 13, 2021

Daniil Medvedev had reached the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters the last time it took place (in 2019), which means he will lose a significant amount of points because of his withdrawal. Rafael Nadal had also reached the Monte Carlo semifinals in 2019, but he can still accumulate the required number of points to displace the Russian in the charts.

At the moment Daniil Medvedev holds the No. 2 position with a tally of 10,030 points, which is 360 ahead of Rafael Nadal's 9,670. And the revised ATP rankings system stipulates that a player can retain 50% of the points they earned from tournaments held during the March-August period in 2019.

Since Monte Carlo falls in that span, Medvedev will be dropping 50% of the points he earned from his semifinal finish in 2019, i.e. 180 points. The Russian's tally at the end of this week will, therefore, be 9,850.

Nadal himself will be dropping 180 points, since he had also reached the semifinals in 2019. But the Spaniard is still in the tournament this year, so he has a chance to add to his tally.

Reaching the Monte Carlo final would give Rafael Nadal 600 points, which in turn would take his tally to 10,090 (9,670-180+600). And that would be enough to leapfrog Daniil Medvedev (at 9,850) and get back to the No. 2 spot.

Rafael Nadal would have to navigate past a series of quality opponents to regain the No. 2 ranking

Rafael Nadal lost to Diego Schwartzman at last year's Rome Masters

Having said that, Rafael Nadal has some formidable opposition in his path to the Monte Carlo final. The Spaniard could face Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals and Diego Schwartzman in the semifinals, both of whom can more than hold their own on clay.

It is pertinent to note here that Schwartzman had beaten Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters last year.

Nadal had withdrawn from the Miami Open last month as he wanted to get in better shape for the clay season. Now that the Spaniard is seemingly close to his physical peak, he would be backing himself to go deep at the Monte Carlo Masters and grab the No. 2 ranking back from Daniil Medvedev.