Novak Djokovic becomes first Serbian to clinch Year-End No. 1 crown – Tennis News
Reigning World Number 1, Novak Djokovic, will finish top at the end of this calendar year and in effect becomes the first Serbian to achieve the landmark in the history of tennis since 1973. Rafael Nadal’s loss against German Florian
Mayer in the third round of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday, assured the year-end first spot for the reigning world number 1, Novak Djokovic. Since 1973, he is the sixteenth player to finish number one.
Novak Djokovic will be officially crowned the year-end World Number 1 at the closing ceremony of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The ceremony will take place in London and Djokovic will feature in this tournament for the fifth
consecutive time. The tournament is scheduled to be played from November 20-27.
Four players have managed to achieve this milestone and amongst them are the World Number 2, Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010), World Number 3, Roger Federer (2004-2007, 2009), and famous rocket serve master, Andy Roddick (2003).
Injury forced Novak Djokovic out from the tennis world for a while. The major disappointment came when he had to pull out of the Shanghai Masters due to his back injury. He couldn’t defend his title at the 2011 China Open in Beijing
this year for the same reason. It is disappointing to see the world class player out of action but he is not the one to be blamed. He is scheduled to make his return to the tennis arena in Basel Swiss Indoors tournament this month.
Serbian International is scheduled to play in Basel Swiss Indoors, the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, and the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (at the O2 Arena London) before the end of this season.
He still maintains an impressive 64-3 match record which helped him to a record five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in a single season. He triumphed in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome and Montreal. In 2011, on his route to
all these triumphs in a single season, he has defeated the likes of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer for six and four times respectively.
Apart from injury concerns, this has been the most terrific year for the world number 1 as he clinched 10 titles in eleven final appearances and maintained a spectacular winning 41-match unbeaten run in the beginning of the season.
He won the Australian Open for the second time, this year, and clinched his first US Open triumph as well but his ultimate glory came on 4th July when he won the Wimbledon tournament and climbed up to the No. 1 spot in the South African Airways
2011 ATP Rankings.
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