By Nick Georgandis
Roger Federer celebrated a 300th week at the top of the ATP rankings, holding a slim 195-pont lead over No. 2 Novak Djokovic after the Serb notched his fifth title of the year on Sunday, an exciting 5-7, 7-6(11), 6-3 comeback over Andy Murray in the finals at Shanghai.
Federer himself called the 300th week atop the charts "probably one of my greatest achievements" -- and looking at the rest of the current field really puts that statement and the record itself in perspective.
Federer has spent more time at No. 1 than Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, and Lleyton Hewitt combined (283 weeks). Stefan Edberg is 10th in weeks at No. 1 with 72 -- Federer has more than quadrupled that number.
Nadal has the second-most weeks at No. 1 of any active player with 102. If the Spaniard were to take over the No. 1 spot next week (impossible, but here for comparison's sake), he would need to hold it until August 10, 2016, to break Federer's record.
For Djokovic, No. 1 for 53 weeks in his career, the task would be even more outlandish. The Serb would need to take over the top spot and hold it until the middle of July in 2017 to match the Swiss.
The only move in the Top 10 saw Tomas Berdych reclaim No. 6 from Jo-WIlfried Tsonga. The two are separated by only 30 points. In the race for the ATP championships, Tsonga is eighth, behind No. 7 Juan Martin del Potro. Tsonga has a 485-point lead over Janko Tipsarevic for the final spot in the eight-man championship round robin.
Just outside the Top 10, American John Isner moved up to No. 11, a spot ahead of Nicolas Almagro.
In the WTA rankings, the top 12 stayed as they were a week ago, with Victoria Azarenka widening her lead for No. 1 to 1,820 points over Maria Sharapova courtesy her back-to-back tournament victories at Beijing and Linz.
The top move inside the top 30 came from Chinese Tapei's Su-Wei Hsieh, who jumped from 31st to 25th after winning the ITF's Suzhou field and gaining 140 points. The 26-year-old Hsieh is 46-18 on the year, with two WTA and three ITF tournament victories.