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Djokovic Australian Open 2020

Rafael Nadal defeat means Novak Djokovic now guaranteed to break major Roger Federer record


Novak Djokovic is now guaranteed to surpass Roger Federer and become the player with most weeks at world number one.

Djokovic is currently just two weeks away from Federer’s total of 310 weeks at the top.

However, after Rafael Nadal’s defeat in the Australian Open quarterfinal to Stefanos Tsitsipas, it is impossible for anyone to stop the Serbian from still being world number one on March 8 – the start of his 311th week.

It will complete what Djokovic himself has admitted to be a major career goal.

Players with most weeks at world number one (as of 18/2/2021)

Player Weeks
1 Roger Federer 310
2 Novak Djokovic 308
3 Pete Sampras 286
4 Ivan Lendl 270
5 Jimmy Connors 268
6 Rafael Nadal 209
7 John McEnroe 170
8 Bjorn Borg 109
9 Andre Agassi 101
10 Lleyton Hewitt 80

“This is one of my two biggest professional goals,” Novak Djokovic told reporters in December

“To reach the record of, [and] surpass Roger’s record for longest [time at] number one and win as many Slams as possible. I have been saying that before, so I’m working towards that.

“I’m at a good place right now, in a good position. Hopefully I can stay healthy and continue to play well.”


Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.