After Thiem defeat: Djokovic pulls past Sampras
Novak Djokovic will overtake Pete Sampras in the list of players with the most weeks as the world number one. Only Roger Federer is ahead of the Serb.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Aug 25, 2020, 11:42 pm
It is the goal that drives Novak Djokovic in addition to winning the most Grand Slam titles at this point in his career: to become number one in the list of players with the most weeks in the world number one.
The Serb made a small step towards this goal early in the week of the Cincinnati ATP Masters 1000 event. After Dominic Thiem's clear defeat against Djokovic's Lansdsmann Filip Krajinovic, it is clear that the 17-time major champion will still be at the top of the world rankings on September 21, leaving Pete Sampras behind.
The US-American had the place at the top of the ATP rankings for 286 weeks, Djokovic will start his 287th week as an industry leader on September 21 - and the chances are given the rather mediocre results of the previous year at the US Open ( Round of 16) and at the French Open (semifinals) it is good that Djokovic will extend his lead in the world rankings over Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem.
Due to the corona virus and the associated freezing of the leaderboard, Djokovic's record hunt was suddenly stopped for the time being. Now that the game has resumed, it is now clear when the 33-year-old Federer's record of 310 weeks will break at the earliest: If Djokovic was consistently number one in the world by March 8, 2021, he would have overtaken the Swiss and one of his two largest Goals achieved.