Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal's unexpected twist in Wimbledon drama

Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal will receive a surprise boost at Wimbledon following the absences of both World No.1 Daniil Medvedev and World No.2 Alexander Zverev for the grand slam.

For the first time since 2003, none of Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray are in the top two in the ATP rankings.

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With Djokovic losing in the quarter-finals at the French Open - where he was the defending champion - Djokovic dropped to World No.3.

Nadal moved up one spot to World No.4 after his 22nd grand slam title.

But in a twist, Zverev injured himself in the semi-final match against Nadal and has since been ruled out of Wimbledon.

World No.1 Medvedev is banned from Wimbledon due to the grand slam's sanctions against Russian and Belarusian players.

This means that Djokovic will now be the No.1 seed and Nadal will the No.2 at the All England Club.

Neither will meet each other until the final if they are to reach the last day.

However, there still remains a question mark over Nadal's participation at Wimbledon.

The 22-time grand slam champion underwent procedures on his injured foot after claiming the French Open.

He is yet to confirm his participation at SW19.

However, the Spaniard has been training on grass behind closed doors in Mallorca and is set to announce his decision in the coming days.

Novak Djokovic to suffer further rankings drop

While this is a boost for Djokovic's grand slam title hopes, his ranking is set to get even worse.

Djokovic could fall as far as World No.8 after Wimbledon.

The ATP tour decided to strip Wimbledon of rankings points because of its ban on Russian and Belarusian players.

This means Djokovic will lose those 2,000 points even if he wins the title.

The 20-time major champion isn't scheduled to play in any of the lead-up events before Wimbledon either, meaning he will miss out on even more points.

And to make matters worse, Djokovic is still set to be banned from the US Open with the country requiring all visitors to be vaccinated to enter.

This is despite the US Open announcing Russian and Belarusian players would be able to participate in the year's final grand slam.

The decision from the US Open caused division, but will allow World No.1 Daniil Medvedev to defend his title later this year.

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