Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic is celebrating his 100th week at number one in the ATP rankings.
The 26-year-old Serb is the ninth player to reach the milestone, joining Andre Aggasi (101 week), Rafael Nadal (102 weeks), Bjorn Borg (109 weeks), John McEnroe (170 weeks), Jimmy Connors (268 weeks), Ivan Lendl (270 weeks), Pete Sampras (286 weeks) and Roger Federer (302 weeks).
“I was taught to dream big and to dream to be Number one in the world,” says Djokovic.
“It takes years of hard work and dedication. It is a long process gto become a champion. Tennis is a very specific and unique sport, where you take all the credit or all the blame.”
Djokovic reached number 1 in July 2011. He lost the top spot to Federer for three months in 2012 but regained it in November of that year.
At present, it is not sure whether the Wimbledon 2011 champion will go on to finish year-end as the No. 1. The deciding factor will be if he could go on to retain his Beijing crown for a fourth successive time at the China Open which starts on September 30. Should Nadal reach the final, he would once again reach the summit of world professional tennis.
Meanwhile, Nadal, who is etching out a season for the history books is close to re-claiming No. 1 for the first time since 3 July 2011. He has notched up 11,015 points since winning the US Open, where Djokovic was a losing-finalist, thereby maintaining a 2,905 points lead over the Serb (a total of 8,110 points).
“There are still a lot of tournaments to come,” added Djokovic. “Calculations are not on my mind right now. I am trying to feed on the confidence that I have.”
