Rafa Nadal is a deserving year end no. 1 for 2013

Rafa Nadal has confirmed the year end no. 1 ranking with his victory over Wawrinka in the World Tour Finals.

Rafa had the 2 biggest periods of dominance this year, where he won many big titles in a row, including 2 Grand Slam titles.

The first one started in Barcelona in April 2013 and it continued till Roland Garros finals in June. During this period, he won 22 matches in a row, including two Masters 1000 titles at Rome and Madrid and topped it with the French Open crown.

His 2^nd period of dominance was surprisingly on the North American hard courts where he had struggled in the past. He won back to back titles in the masters events at Montreal and Cincinati. Rafa continued that momentum to defeat Djokovic in the US Open finals. Thus he remained undefeated on the North American hard court swing.

During these two periods of dominance, he beat all the top players in the world, and most notably his biggest rival Djokovic in both the French Open as well as the U S Open.

Djokovic, it can be argued had an equally great year. He had a great start to the season: (17-0) till he first lost in Miami, as well as a great end streak from October 2013 where he has won 19 matches in a row including two masters titles at Shanghai and Paris.

However, between them, it was clearly Nadal who won the most important battles and beat Djokovic in their 2 Grand Slam battles of the year. For winning those , and for winning a record 5 masters titles for the season, it would be right to say that Nadal truly deserves the year end no. 1 ranking.