Novak Djokovic has won his last 21 consecutive matches.
Novak Djokovic sent a ‘dangerous’ message to his rivals in his comments about potentially going through the season without defeat. Djokovic has enjoyed an outstanding start to the 2020 season, winning the ATP Cup, a record eighth Australian Open and the Dubai Championships last month.
In his post-match interview after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in Dubai, he was asked what his goals were for the season and said one of them was to go unbeaten before backtracking.
Djokovic later clarified his position and insisted he was not thinking about going through the year without losing.
But the 32-year-old has won 21 matches in a row, has gone on lengthy winning runs before, most notably 43 wins between the end of 2010 and June 2011.
The six-week suspension to the ATP Tour means Djokovic’s run will extend to April and perhaps longer if the coronavirus crisis worsens.
And former world No 1 doubles player Mark Knowles said on Tennis Channel he fully expects Djokovic to pick up right where he left off and reckons his comments about being unbeaten are concerning for the rest of the field.
Novak Djokovic sent a ‘dangerous’ message to his rivals in his comments about potentially going through the season without defeat. Djokovic has enjoyed an outstanding start to the 2020 season, winning the ATP Cup, a record eighth Australian Open and the Dubai Championships last month.
Novak Djokovic’s secret to stunning unbeaten streak theory raised
In his post-match interview after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in Dubai, he was asked what his goals were for the season and said one of them was to go unbeaten before backtracking.
Djokovic later clarified his position and insisted he was not thinking about going through the year without losing.
But the 32-year-old has won 21 matches in a row, has gone on lengthy winning runs before, most notably 43 wins between the end of 2010 and June 2011.
The six-week suspension to the ATP Tour means Djokovic’s run will extend to April and perhaps longer if the coronavirus crisis worsens.
And former world No 1 doubles player Mark Knowles said on Tennis Channel he fully expects Djokovic to pick up right where he left off and reckons his comments about being unbeaten are concerning for the rest of the field.
Knowles said: “It is spectacular, we are continually amazed. This year he looks as focused and fresh as we have ever seen him.
“Unfortunately for this delay he’s on a 21 match win streak, he looks great.
“I expect him to continue to pick up where he left off whenever we do resume.
“He’s just looked really motivated and he’s had a couple of quotes where he’s kind of said it would be nice to go undefeated for the year and that’s dangerous to me.”
Knowles’ comments echo those made by three-time Grand Slam winner Lindsay Davenport, who feels when the Serbian is emotional, he produces his best tennis.
“We saw him almost in tears when Serbia wasn’t able to win the Davis Cup and you saw how much it meant to him, his team-mates and country,” she said.
“[But] he goes into the off-season and what does he do – at the ATP Cup he was so fired up and ready to go. When he is emotional and it means so much to him he plays his best tennis.
“He was absolutely rock-solid in the ATP Cup got more confidence and momentum for the Australian Open and how he is really playing for history.
“He’s playing for the Grand Slams and everybody thinks that this is going to be a race that goes down to the wire between the three of them.
“Novak firmly believes he has something to prove, to try to end with the most Grand Slams and that’s what he is fired up for. It gives him a reason to play for the next few years and a big reason to care.”
4 Novak Djokovic Grand Slam records that will be tough to break in the future
Novak Djokovic is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Some observers, tennis players, and coaches describe Djokovic as the greatest of all time because he has won the trophies with victories against the top players and the fiercest rivals in one of the strongest eras of tennis. Djokovic has the highest Elo rating score in Open Era, which takes into account the quality of the opponents.
Currently, Djokovic leads the head-to-head record against the other two members of the Big 3 and has the highest number of Slams won beating a big 3 member en route. Furthermore, he has won by defeating more highly-ranked players on an average than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
He has as of now won 17 Grand Slams in his career, only behind Nadal’s 19 and Federer’s 20. Keeping in mind his age, many believe that he will overtake both Nadal and Federer. His performance has been simply sensational in Grand Slams and he has set countless records in them. Here are 4 such grand slams records set by Djokovic that will be extremely difficult to break in the future.
#4 Winning a Grand Slam in 3 different decades
The world no.1 after winning the Australian Open earlier this year has come the only player to have won a grand slam in 3 different decades. He won his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2008, then won 15 more titles between 2010-2019, and then won in January 2020 in Melbourne, which was the first Grand Slam of the new decade.
#3 Reaching the finals of each Grand Slam 3 consecutive times
Reaching the Grand Slam of a major is a very tough thing to achieve. But the Serb is the only player to have reached the finals of each grand slam 3 consecutive times, a feat that requires levels of consistency across surfaces that only Djokovic could achieve.
#2 Most titles won at Australian Open
Djokovic has won 8 titles Down Under, winning the title in 2008, 2011-2013, 2015-2016, and 2019-2020. The next players after Djokovic are Roger Federer and Roy Emerson, each having won the title 6 times.
#1 Holding all the 4 grand slams on 3 different surfaces at once
Although he hasn’t achieved the calendar slam, he achieved the next big thing in 2016, when he held all the 4 majors after winning the French Open. The unique thing about this feat was even though Rod Laver had held all the 4 Grand Slams together because he achieved the calendar slam; during his time the surfaces of the courts of different Grand Slam tournaments weren’t as different to each other. Australian Open was still played on grass like Wimbeldon. So Djokovic is the only player to have held all the 4 grand slams with 3 different surfaces.
