Novak Djokovic matches “THIS” Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl’s record after a historic 2021 season
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Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Ivan Lendl
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic had a sensational season in 2021 where he broke multiple records and scripted history in one of the most dominant tennis seasons. The Serbian won 3 Grand Slam titles this year and finished as the runner-up at the 2021 US Open, missing out on the very difficult Calendar Slam by a narrow margin.
Having started the year with 17 Grand Slam titles to his name, his wins in Australia, Paris and Wimbledon took him to 20 titles and levelled him with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the entire Big-3 club is now locked on 20 Slams each. Novak also broke Federer’s record of having spent 310 weeks as the World No. 1 with Novak now nearing 350 weeks.
With a 7th year where he ended as the World No. 1 overtaking Pete Sampras‘ record of 6 years, Novak tied another record of the American. Pete (1994, 1997) and Ivan Lendl (1986, 1987) had finished 2 years each during their careers when they remained the World No. 1 throughout the season and Djokovic matched the record with his feats this year having previously achieved the feat in 2015.
Novak however remains 1 shy of the record currently held by Jimmy Connors (1976, 1976, 1978) and Roger Federer (2005 2006, 2007) and would need another sensational season to match the tally of Connors and Federer.
Novak Djokovic is World No. 1 since 3rd Feb 2020
Djokovic was dethroned from the World No. 1 position by Rafael Nadal on 4th November 2019 and the Spaniard remained the top-ranked player till 2nd February 2020 as Novak overtook him on 3rd February and has remained on the summit of the rankings ever since.
The Serbian is currently on 11,540 points and has a lead of 2900 points over the second-ranked Daniil Medvedev and it will take some monumental efforts by the Russian to replace Novak on the top as he is the favourite to replace Novak given his consistency this season and hopes of a better performance next season.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)