Dubai Tennis Championships
Young Tomas Machac at the rank around 100 have given tough fight to the world champion. Finally it was a win for Djokovic 6-3 3-6 77-61. The final one being a tie breaker could've been more interesting if Tomas Machac have come closer.
378 weeks at the top position and leads the record holder Steffi Graf (377).
The number 378 is insane. It is a meaningful ranking because there are less coincidences than in many other sports that can influence that ranking. In soccer as we have now seen it is mostly one single tournament that made Messi the best player, in car racing you can have someone else to crash into you accidentally or even intentionally. In tennis it is mostly about your fitness and whether you can participate in enough tournaments within a year, and even that is up to the player. Djokovic isn't playing as much as he used to and so he knows that those tours he is playing, he also must win them in order to stay at the top. I think he is going to add a couple of weeks to that number in his career. In a sport with so many potential competitors around the world that's amazing. The next Djokovic could have appeared at some point, but no, it shows how exceptional he is. That also counts for Nadal and Federer of course, whereas Nadal's number of French Open wins is blowing my mind much more than his ranking number 1 weeks.
Djokovic is a really great tennis player and this record of his will probably not be surpassed by anyone for a very long time.
In tennis, for almost 15 years, we have been watching the great fight of three tennis players for the top of world tennis, and in such a fierce competition, being the number one tennis player in the world for so many weeks is a miraculous result.
I'm sure the next challenge for Djokovic now is to surpass Nadal in number of GS titles won and I think we can expect a big fight between him and Nadal for the GOAT title .
Tennis will never be the same when Djokovic and Nadal retire.
