The best number one in the world in history is back. Once his tenth crown was consummated at the 2023 Australian Open, the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic regained his place in the honorary position of the ATP ranking and with it further stretched one of the most important records of the ‘white sport’
Nole reached 374 weeks as number one in the world, a figure that will last for at least the entire month of February. With this, he distances himself even further from his main pursuers in this classification, who are already retired players.
Second place is held by the Swiss Roger Federer, who hung up his racket last year and throughout his career he spent 310 weeks in the position of honor. The third and last place on the podium is occupied by the American Pete Sampras with 286 weeks as the number one in the world.
Further back in the ranking are Americans Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors with 270 and 268 weeks, respectively. Only in sixth place on the list does the other great active player appear, the Spanish Rafael Nadal, in his case with 209 weeks in the position of honor.
At this point, it seems practically impossible for him to add a lot of time in the elite and therefore Djokovic’s record seems not to be at stake. This is the panorama in a classification that ‘Nole’ seems to be controlled and that aspires to continue moving away.
Do you see Novak Djokovic surpassing the 400 week mark as the number one in the world? The Serb, who had to live with a muscle problem throughout the tournament, after suffering a bit in the early days of the tournament, then largely dominated the tournament by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets in the final.
Steve Flink pays tribute to Djokovic
Tennis journalist Steve Flink has heaped praise on Novak Djokovic for his performance in the Australian Open final. “At 6-5 in the tiebreak in the third set, they’re having what looks like a pretty neutral rally.
Novak steps around and hits a forehand very near the sideline but beautifully controlled, not dangerous. He kept it fairly low and had Tsitsipas on the stretch, and Stefanos missed a forehand cross-court, the match was over.
So he knows how close to the lines, he knows how to measure his shots and even on that one, he didn’t try to hit it that hard, but his placement was perfect, and it’s uncanny what a great match player Djokovic is.” Novak Djokovic dropped his only set of the fortnight in the second round, in a dominant title triumph.
