DJOKOVIC AND HEAD SET REMARKABLE RANKINGS RECORD

The remarkable Novak Djokovic has set another record – one which many people thought would never be accomplished.

The 35-year-old Serb is today the top-ranked player in the world for the 378th week, beating the mark of 377 set in the 1990s by Steffi Graf. And because all Djokovic’s weeks as world number one have been with a Head racquet, it is a massive achievement for both the player and the racquet maker.

Last month, Djokovic drew level with Rafael Nadal on 22 Grand Slam singles titles by winning the Australian Open for a record 10th time, but Djokovic has won his 22 majors over a timespan two years shorter than Nadal’s. In the 10 years between January 2011 and January 2021, Djokovic won 17 of the 40 Grand Slams that were staged, and he held all four concurrently after the 2016 French Open, making him only the second man in the open era of tennis to do that and the first since 1969.

“This is a quite phenomenal achievement,” said Ottmar Barbian, executive vice-president of HEAD’s racquet sports division, “and all of us who have been involved with the Djokovic/Head collaboration are honoured to have been part of it and witnessed this pinnacle of sporting achievement”.

“The rankings are based on results over 52 weeks, so they testify to consistency. To get to number one at all is a mighty achievement – to stay there for an aggregate of more than seven years in such a competitive era is mind-blowing! We congratulate Novak Djokovic and salute the engineers who have worked on Novak’s racquets over the past 14 years.”

The 378-week mark is the latest in a breathtaking list of Djokovic’s achievements. He is one of just two men to win all four major singles titles at least twice, he is the only man to win all nine Masters-1000 titles, he is the only man to have finished the year as world number one seven times, and he has a Davis Cup winner’s medal from 2010.

Djokovic would probably have reached the 378-week milestone somewhat earlier if he had been allowed to play all the Grand Slam and Masters-1000 tournaments in 2022. But with much fewer ranking points to defend in 2023, it increases the likelihood that he will extend his record number of weeks still further, with a good chance that he will become the first player – man or woman – to spend 400 weeks at number one, possibly as early as the end of July.