MADRID, 27 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has become this Monday the tennis player in history, man or woman, with the most weeks as world number one, with 378, surpassing the record established by the German Steffi Graf.
With his 378th week at the top of the ATP world ranking, the 35-year-old Balkan managed to undo the tie with Graf that he achieved last week, an achievement that joins his extensive list of successes on the circuit.
In January, Djokovic matched Rafa Nadal with 22 Grand Slam singles titles by winning the Australian Open for the 10th time, more than any other male player in history. Furthermore, he is one of only two men to have won all four major singles at least twice, the only one to have won all nine Masters 1,000, and the only one to finish the year as world number one seven times.
The Serb has already held the record for weeks at the head of the ATP ranking for a long time. His closest male rival in the historical ranking, which was introduced in 1973, is Swiss Roger Federer, now retired and who spent a total of 310 weeks as world number one. The ‘podium’ is closed by the American Pete Sampras (286).
On the women’s circuit, Graf came to command the WTA ranking for 377 weeks -which started in 1975-. The German was the female number one 45 weeks more than the second ranked, the Czech Martina Navratilova (332), with the American Serena Williams in third position (319).
NADAL GOES DOWN TO EIGHTH PLACE; BERNABÉ ZAPATA JUMPS TO THE ‘TOP 50’
In the rest of the ATP ranking this week, the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz remains in second place, despite losing in the final in Rio de Janeiro, ahead of the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, while the American Taylor Fritz has risen two positions to close the ‘Top 5’.
The most pronounced drop in the ‘Top 10’ is starring Rafa Nadal, who has paid for his break due to injury and has gone from sixth to eighth place, behind the Russians Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev. Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and Danish Holger Rune are ninth and tenth, respectively.
Undoubtedly, the great jump of the week is that of the Valencian Bernabé Zapata, who sees his great performance in the Rio tournament rewarded, where he reached the semifinals, and climbs 21 places to 42, entering the ‘Top 50 for the first time ‘.
Among the rest of Spaniards, the Asturian Pablo Carreño remains seventeenth; Roberto Bautista from Castellón rises one place to 27th and Alejandro Davidovich from Málaga, two to 29th; Albert Ramos from Barcelona drops three to 50; Jaume Munar from the Balearic Islands is still in 1966; and Roberto Carballés from Tenerife drops one to 74.