Novak Djokovic won the Paris Masters earlier this week, defeating Daniil Medvedev, and exacting a measure of revenge for the loss to Medvedev in the US Open Men’s Final earlier this year, which denied Djokovic a chance at history, as it would have given him the first calendar Grand Slam by a man in over half a century.
That, of course, was a big loss. Perhaps it would be unfair to suggest that this win helps Djokovic to completely erase that.
Yet, this was a huge win for him. A historical win, even.
How so?
It was a record breaking 37 Masters 1000 titles during the course of his illustrious career. Also, it mathematically clinches the year end number one ranking for him. This makes it a record setting seventh time that Djokovic wins the year end number one ranking. That is more than any other man in history, at least in the Open Era. Djokovic also keeps adding to his record number of weeks atop the men’s ranking, and this win assures that he will add quite a number of weeks to his record, expanding on his lead over the next closest competitor, Roger Federer. Federer was the number one ranked man for 310 weeks overall during his career. Djokovic is guaranteed over 350 weeks atop the men’s rankings now, having clinched the number one spot for the year. That means he will have over 40 weeks more than Federer has. This is assuming that Federer, who is 40 and has been hampered by injuries in recent years, will not get back to the number one ranking.
All of this feels like it is just one more brick in what feels like a solid wall of evidence that suggests that, indeed, Novak Djokovic is truly the GOAT of men's tennis.
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