Novak Djokovic starts his 414th week as World No. 1, thus surpassing Roger Federer’s stay at the top of the rankings by two whole years.
Federer previously held the record for the most number of weeks as World No. 1 at 310 but Djokovic surpassed him in 2021. The gap between the two is currently 104 weeks.
Djokovic and Federer had a strong rivalry and the former leads the head-to-head 27-24. The two locked horns in five Grand Slam finals, with the Serb winning four of them while the Swiss came out on top at the 2007 US Open.
The 36-year-old was assured as the year-end World No. 1 for 2023 during the ATP Finals and Carlos Alcaraz has been unable to produce tournament runs that could threaten his stay at the top. He is currently 1050 points above the Spaniard who is ranked second in the world.
Djokovic has played nine matches so far in 2024, winning seven of them. He started the year at the United Cup and won his matches against Zhang Zhizhen and Jiri Lehecka before being beaten by Alex de Minaur in Serbia’s quarterfinal tie against Australia.
The 36-year-old then competed at the Australian Open and reached the semifinals after beating Dino Prizmic, Alexei Popyrin, Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Adrian Mannarino and Taylor Fritz. Here, he was beaten by eventual champion Jannik Sinner.
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