Another day, another milestone for the World No. 1. Yesterday was his 29th birthday, today Novak Djokovic joined an elite group of tennis legends who have stood atop the ATP rankings for 200 weeks or more. Djokovic, who has held the top spot since July at 2014, is now into his 99th consecutive week as No. 1.
James Buddell of ATPWorldTour.com compiled some amazing stats on Nole’s reign. Here are a few of the highlights of the piece (you can read Buddell's full tribute to Nole here):
1. Only four players have held the No. 1 ranking longer than Djokovic:
Federer, 302
Sampras, 286
Lendl, 270
Connors, 268
2. If Djokovic stays atop the leaderboard, he will pass Connors on September 11, 2017.
3. Since he began his third stint at the top of men's professional tennis on 7 July 2014 (99 weeks ago), Djokovic has suffered only 13 losses.
4. Djokovic has gone 56-7 vs. the Top 10 during his third stint at No. 1 (past 99 weeks), and 19-5 in finals.
5. Djokovic is the second-oldest (29 years, 1 day) player to hit the 200-week mark at No. 1. Only Ivan Lendl (29 years, 27 days) was older when he reached 200 weeks. Federer was 26 years and 117 days, Sampras 26 years, 104 days and Connors was 25 years and 297 days.
Djokovic will face off with Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan in the first round in Paris. He is bidding to become the eighth man to win all four Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros this year.