Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both ended their 2016 seasons prematurely as they both suffered from the injury.
They had to watch from the sidelines as rivals Novak Djokovic completed the Career Grand Slam and Andy Murray retained his Olympic title and became World number one for the first time.
Therefore, it was unknown how Federer and Nadal would commence the 2017 season, but they would soon remind everyone of their greatness.
Nadal and Federer returned to the tour at the start of the 2017 season after injury layoffs.
They shocked the world by reaching the Australian Open final, which was their first Grand Slam final against each other since the 2011 French Open.
They won to share that year’s four Grand Slams between them and Nadal not only regained the number one ranking, but he also finished the year as the ATP’s top-ranked player, which surprised Federer.
“Am I surprised that he’s world No. 1 right now? Maybe a little bit, just because last year we were at the academy, you know, both injured, not knowing where our careers were going to go,” Federer said about Nadal ahead of the 2017 Laver Cup.
“I’m not surprised he came back and won the French Open and he wins Grand Slams again and that he was in contention for world No. 1. But then being world No. 1 is a whole different story.