Men's Tennis : 5 lesser known records of Novak Djokovic
It is difficult to pinpoint any particular weakness or flaw in Novak Djokovic's game. Although Novak doesn't have any flamboyant shots like a Federer cross-court forehand or a Rafael Nadal top-spin forehand, he more than compensates for the lack of flair with a game that is built on ruthless shot-making coupled with very little or no flaws whatsoever. Djokovic's stance when receiving an opponent's serve is a textbook example of how ideally one should gauge the opponent's serve. Djokovic is able to gauge the direction and speed of his opponent's serve so effortlessly and this is what makes him the greatest returner of the service game that tennis has ever had.
Entering the 2018 tennis season on the back of a disappointing 2017 season, few would have envisioned a scenario where Djokovic would reclaim the top ranking. But that is exactly what Novak did in the latter half of the 2018 season as he re-discovered his ruthless form to rise to the Top of the ATP rankings despite being ranked outside the top-20 at the start of the season (the only man in tennis history to ascend to do so). With 14 Grand Slams in his kitty and his favourite Australian Open tournament on the horizon soon, Novak has never looked in better shape to do what he routinely does - win tournaments!
Without talking about the obvious, we delve into 5 records that Djokovic has set in his career so far that are probably not known by many:
#5. Most ATP Points accrued at a time
The year 2011 was the year Novak finally dislodged the might of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal from the top pedestal of tennis. Making incremental changes to his diet and fitness regimen, Djokovic romped to 3 of the 4 Grand Slam titles that year and became the World Number 1 for the first time.
In 2015, he went one better and surpassed what he had achieved in 2011. The year 2015 is without a doubt the greatest tennis season that any athlete has had in the Open Era. He not just won 3 of the 4 Grand Slam titles on offer, he made 15 straight finals winning 10 of them. Such was his domination, that he accrued a total of 16,950 ATP ranking points - the highest ever. This was in fact more than the sum total of the second and third ranked players.