Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal: How they can become World No 1 in Cincinnati

With the events that took place in Montreal, Andy Murray will be holding on to his world number one ranking for at least a couple more days.

Ahead of the recently concluded Rogers Cup, many were expecting the Briton to drop down in the rankings following his withdrawal from the event due to injury as all world number two Rafael Nadal had to do was reach the semi-final to regain his old ranking.

However, the 10-time French Open winner was knocked out in the third round by Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov in a major upset.

This gave world number three Roger Federer a huge boost as a win in Montreal followed by victory in the upcoming Cincinnati Masters would have guaranteed his return to the summit of tennis for the first time since October 2012.

But it was not to be either as he was stunned in a straight set loss to young German prospect Alexander Zverev in the final on Sunday (13 August).

With the Cincinnati Open having commenced on the same day, one of Federer or Nadal, who both have byes in the tournament, now have a chance of regaining the coveted world number one spot as all they have to do now is to simply win the Masters event.

Having destiny in their own hands, the duo just need to win their next five respective games to reach the summit ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year in the US Open.

What's more is that Murray will be missing out on Cincinnati as well, meaning he will be lose 600 points.

So while Nadal is guaranteed to overtake him even if he fails to take part, all Federer has to do is take part in the second round to become the new world number two.

But what if both fail to reach the final? Can Federer become the new world number one without winning the event depending on Nadal's results? And what will be the points difference if both of them reach the final?

You can use the table below to calculate just how many points both will be on depending on how far they go.