Daniil Medvedev to become 1st player outside the Big 4 to reach World No. 1 since 2004
Daniil Medvedev will rise to the top spot in the ATP rankings on Monday following Novak Djokovic's quarter-final exit at the the Dubai Tennis Championships. The Russian will become the first player not named Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray to occupy the World No. 1 spot in 18 years. The last player outside the Big 4 to be ranked No. 1 was Andy Roddick in 2004.
At the start of the week, Djokovic was just 440 points ahead of Medvedev. The Serb was also defending 500 points from his triumph in Dubai in 2020. For Djokovic to stay at No. 1, he had to outperform Medvedev, who is competing in Acapulco.
But the Serb was upset by unseeded Czech Jiri Vesely in the quarterfinals in Dubai. Medvedev, on the other hand, has reached the semifinals in Acapulco, which will earn him enough points to leapfrog the Serb to become the new World No. 1 when the rankings are refreshed on Monday.
Before Daniil Medvedev; it was Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray who monopolized the World No. 1 position
As mentioned above, Roddick was the last non-Big 4 player to be ranked No. 1 in the world. Federer replaced the American as the No. 1 after winning the 2004 Australian Open. He went on to hold the top spot for a whopping 310 weeks over the next two decades.
Federer's Big 4 rivals Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were the only other players to take over the No. 1 position during that period, holding the top rank for 361, 209 and 41 weeks respectively.
In that context, Medvedev's achievement is a defining moment in tennis history. The Russian, however, will now have to focus on holding on to top spot. He will be defending his quarterfinal points at the Miami Masters next month, and will most likely have to make a deep run at the tournament if he wants to remain No. 1.