Even had Roger Federer won the title in Melbourne Nadal would still have been on top come January 31st.
Rafael Nadal will not come close to dropping in the rankings even with a quarterfinal loss at the 2011 Australian Open. Nadal will remain the top ranked player and in fact his lead over world number 2 Roger Federer will increase.
Nadal duplicated his efforts from last season as he made the quarterfinals again. With Roger Federer failing to duplicate what he did last year the Swiss Maestro will see his ranking points total drop.
The Australian Open results will affect the January 31st ATP rankings and at that time Nadal will have about a 4000 point lead on Federer. The size of his lead over Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray remains to be determined however it will be large in all scenarios.
What is keeping Nadal high above every else are his clay court results from Monte Carlo, Rome, and Madrid from 2011 along with his Roland Garros title. Nadal also holds the Grand Slam titles for Wimbledon and the US Open and those tournaments are still a good ways off in 2011.
Winning a Masters title gives a player 1000 ranking points while Grand Slam titles award players 2000. Nadal will have over 12,000 ranking points on January 31st while no other player can have more than 8000.
