Novak Djokovic, the record-breaking man who goes for more

During the last almost 20 years, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal starred in one of the best eras in the history of tennis, winning absolutely everything. But with Federer retired and Nadal who would return for a final season in 2024, the last one left competing is Djokovic who, despite the youth of his rivals, He continues to win practically everything he plays, as happened with the 2023 US Open.

And that’s what happened this year. He won three Grand Slam titles (and lost the final of the remaining one at Wimbledon), the Cincinnati Masters 1000 and, despite having played very few tournaments throughout the year, he made sure to return to number 1 in the world starting this week .

But the most notable fact that comes after this new conquest of the US Open (the fourth in the personal account). Is that the Djokovic It was not enough for him to be the player with the most Grand Slams won in the Open Era.

Now she won her 24th major title and reached the Australian Margaret Court, who dominated this statistic taking into account the time prior to the aforementioned era. And it seems almost a given that next year she will be able to surpass it.

Throughout his career, the Serbian won the Australian Open 10 times (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023), Roland Garros 3 times (2016, 2021 and 2023), seven Wimbledons (2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and another four the US Open (2011, 2015, 2018 and 2023).

But the list of records for the Belgrade-born player does not end here, as he is the player with the most weeks as number 1 in the world.

This is because he will begin his 390th week this Monday and will be 80 ahead of his closest pursuer, Roger Federeris the only man to win each Grand Slam three times and also the only one to obtain all the Masters 1000 titles (he won at least twice each), just to mention the most important marks.

At the end of this season he could become the top winner of the ATP World Tour Finals, a tournament in which he is tied with Federer with six victories each, and next year he will be able to fulfill the only goal he lacks, which is to obtain the gold medal at the Olympic Games. Furthermore, he reached 96 titles and was 13 away from reaching the ATP tournament record held by Jimmy Connors, which seems like a difficult but not impossible task.

Djokovic He broke out in 2007, at only 19 years old, to be the third in contention in an era that was marked by the total dominance of Federer and Nadal. But starting in 2011, what could be called the “Djokovic Era” began, because since that year Roger could only win 4 Grand Slam titles, Nadal another 13 (nine of them at Roland Garros where he is invincible), while the Serbian He was left with the incredible sum of 23. Yes, between the Swiss and the Spanish they do not equal what Nole won.

16 years after that stellar appearance among the best in the world, a 36-year-old veteran Djokovic seems not to feel the passage of time and continues to beat the new generations, which now has the young Carlos Alcaraz, 20, as its main exponent. The key now is not so much in the physical, as he did at some point, but that he demonstrates having an impressive mentality to recover from difficult moments and constantly rises from the ashes like a phoenix in the middle of the games.

And there is bad news for those who want to take away his dominance or end his era, since Djokovic is far from thinking about retirement and this is what he said about it: “I feel good physically. Age is just a number, that phrase resonates with me right now. I don’t want to consider quitting tennis. I will consider doing so if young people kick my ass at Grand Slams in the next few years”.

There is Djokovic for a while. There are records for a while.