After winning the Australian Open on January 29 and becoming the player with the most Grand Slams to date along with Nadal —both have 22—, Djokovic is seven days away from making history again. This Monday the Serbian tennis player begins his week 377 as number one in the ATP ranking, and equals the German Steffi Graf, the player who has lasted the longest at the top of the world ranking throughout the history of tennis.
In seven days, the 35-year-old Balkan will be the male and female tennis player with the most weeks in first place in the ranking, surpassing the German, winner of 22 Grand Slam titles among the 107 trophies she has won throughout his career.
Djokovic regained number one on January 30 after proclaiming himself champion of the Australian Open, where he was unable to participate in 2022 after being expelled from the country for not being vaccinated. With this latest trophy, the Serbian equaled the 22 Grand Slams of Nadal and Steffi Graff herself. They are followed by the American Serena Williams with 21 and the Australian Margaret Court —the athlete who has accumulated the most majors throughout her career— with 20.
A week away from achieving the record for the most durable No. 1, the tennis player (7,070 points) has Caros Alcaraz (6,480) as his greatest threat after the Spaniard’s return to competition with victory in the tournament in Argentina. He is followed by the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, runner-up at the Australian Open, with 5,940.
In the case of the women’s ranking, the Polish Iga Swiatek (10,900) leads the classification with a significant advantage over the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (6,100) in second position, and the American Jessica Pegula (5,250) returns this week to the third step of the podium .
In the case of the Spanish tennis players, Paula Badosa, the best placed player, rises from 20th to 19th place despite her results crisis. Sara Sorribes (77), Nuria Parrizas (79), Cristina Bucsa (86), Garbiñe Muguruza (87), Rebeka Masarova (93), Marina Bassols (126) and Aliona Bolsova (146) complete the national representation in the ranking.
In addition to the achievement he is about to achieve, Djokovic could be crowned the oldest player at number one. At 35 years and eight months, he is close to Federer who was at the top for a while at 36 and ten months.
In a year where Wimbledon, the United States Open and Roland Garros await him, there are doubts as to whether he will be able to participate in the US Open, since the United States Department of Security has extended the ban on entry into the country to people who do not have been vaccinated by at least April 10. At the moment, he will not be at the Indian Wells and Miami Masters 1000 in the months of March and April for this same reason.
His participation in the Australian Open was also involved in controversy due to suspicions that he may have exaggerated the injury. Given the rumors, the tennis player announced that he would offer a press conference “telling everything”, but there has still been no news of this appearance.
If the controversies and health policies allow it, everything indicates that the Serb still has a lot of history to write.
