After collecting his record 9th Australian Open title (and third consecutive) in late January, Novak Djokovic today surpassed Roger Federer for the most weeks at No. 1 in the ATP rankings on Monday.
Djokovic is in his 311th week at the top spot (and counting), which is one more than Federer has spent there.
The 33-year-old from Serbia first reached No. 1 on July 4, 2011, a day after he won Wimbledon for the first time by beating top-ranked Rafael Nadal in the final.
Novak has had five separate stays at No. 1 and finished six seasons there, tying Pete Sampras for the most
Djokovic’s championship at Melbourne Park last month assured him of staying No. 1 at least until this week and claiming sole possession of the record from Federer
Djokovic called reaching that milestone a “relief” and said it would allow him to “focus all my attention on Slams, mostly.”
“When you are going for No. 1 rankings, you kind of have to be playing the entire season, and you have to be playing well; you have to play all the tournaments,” Djokovic said. “My goals will adapt and will shift a little bit.”
Federer most recently spent at week at No. 1 in June 2018. He was 36 at the time and that allows him to still hold the record for oldest man to hold that top place.
Djokovic will likely have that accolade on his to-do-list as well.
S&S