Novak Djokovic's unimaginable 2016 season: When the Serb led World No. 2 Roger Federer by over 9000 points
Novak Djokovic has made a very strong case for being considered the greatest tennis player of all time. The 24-time Grand Slam champion has also won 40 Masters 1000 titles and spent more than 420 weeks as the world No. 1.
2011 was arguably the best season the Serb ever had, when he lost in only six matches in the whole calendar year. The great man was also in his elements during the 2016 season and held all four Grand Slam titles at one point during it.
Djokovic won the Wimbledon and US Open titles in 2015 and followed it up with the Australian Open and French Open titles in 2016 to hold each of the Majors at one point in time. He ended the 2015 season with a humongous 16000-plus points and also as the world No. 1.
Djokovic had great success throughout the 2016 season:
The Serb, who turned 29 in 2016, enjoyed great success throughout the year. He won the Qatar Open and then also won the Sunshine Double by adding the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open titles to his tally.
He then also won rhe Australian Open, French Open, Madrid Open and Canadian Open titles, besides finishing runner-up at the Italian Open and US Open. The Serb also reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the Shanghai Masters that year. He later went on to finish runner-up at the ATP Tour finals, losing to Andy Murray in the final.
Roger Federer’s record in 2016 was in stark contrast to that of Djokovic. The Swiss maestro lost in the Australian Open and Wimbledon semifinals and then spent the rest of the year nursing an injury.
Thereby, he collected 1440 (720*2) ATP points for reaching the semifinals of two Grand Slams. On the other hand, Djokovic amassed almost 10500 points by winning two Grand Slams (2*2000), four Masters 1000 titles (4*1000), one Grand Slam final (1200), one Masters 1000 final (600), one Masters 1000 semifinal (360) and one ATP 250 tournament (250).
The Serb ended the year as the world No. 2 largely owing to his inability to defend the Wimbledon and US Open titles with 11780 points, as Murray finished the year as the world No. 1.
Moreover, Federer finished the season with 2130 points and his ranking dropped to 16th in the world. Midway through the year, (on 9th May, 2016 to be precise) Djokovic led Federer, who was then the world No. 2, by more than a staggering 9000 points, which was almost unthinkable at that point in time. It was yet another feather in the Serb's cap, as he dominated his arch-rival quite effortlessly.