Success begets success is the beauty of sports. In 2003, when Novak Djokovic turned pro, he ended the year with an ATP ranking of 676 but 20 years later he has now won the Australian Open a record 10 titles and is the World No. 1, making it a total of 392 weeks he has spent at the top of the ranking.
Within the the tennis world, Novak Djokovic is hailed as the King of Australia, Rafael Nadal is regarded as the King of Clay and Roger Federer is revered as the King of Grass. Each legend’s monumental success in various courts remain undefeated.
Djokovic dominates Australian Open with record 10 titles
After Novak Djokovic turned pro in 2003, it took five years for him to clinch his first Grand Slam – the Australian Open. The 36-year-old is carrying a 28-match winning streak at the tournament, the longest in the competition’s history, having lost only one full match since 2014.
The Serbian star clinched his fourth Australian Open title in a row at the 2023 edition of the tournament, a feat nobody has achieved before, with Federer (ranked second in the all-time Australian Open titles list), hoisting six titles in total and Rafael Nadal two.
Novak Djokovic went on to win three consecutive titles between 2011 and 2013, including a historic five and a half hour victory against Rafael Nadal in the 2012 final, making him the only player to achieve a three-peat in the competition’s history. Djokovic’s impressive performance continued in 2015 and 2016, when he defeated Andy Murray in both finals to claim his fifth and sixth respectively.
After a two-year dip plagued with injuries, Djokovic regained his imperious form in 2019 and has since secured four consecutive titles, making those 10 titles in 16 years. He is currently still undefeated in all of his appearances in the latter rounds winning 10 semi-finals and nine finals, a testament to his unfazed grit under pressure and ability to execute the big points like no other has in the history of this sport.
Australian Open director considering tribute facility for Novak Djokovic
The Australian Open’s director, Craig Tiley, has expressed the fact that he would be happy to recognize Novak Djokovic’s accomplishments if a stadium or other facility were to be dedicated in his honour.
Novak Djokovic, twenty-four-time Grand Slam winner is the most successful singles star in the history of the Australian Open with ten titles. Roger Federer is second with six titles and two for Rafael Nadal.
Craig Tiley, in the latest episode of the ‘Rock n Roll Tennis’ podcast, said, “Look, I mean, ultimately the naming of the arena is not my decision or tennis Australia’s because we….a lot of people don’t really understand the Wimbledon and the French and the US Open, they own the facility in which they run their events. We lease it, and the government, the Victorian Government, owns our facilities, and we lease the facilities from them, and we are fortunate that they invest in those facilities, but we don’t own them.”
“Yeah, the government, they do a great job on the pre-synched and it’s a great pre-synched infrastructure the government’s put together; it’s magnificent. But yeah, it’s a different construct to the other event. So naming of an arena would be a combination of input that would have to happen. But I would be certainly a supporter of recognizing Novak Djokovic in some way, unbelievable achievements here in Australia”, Tiley concluded.
But Tiley doesn’t have the ability to change the name of the Melbourne Tennis Centre. The Australian Open leases the courts and stadiums and doesn’t hold the naming rights. As things stand, the arenas within the tennis center are named after Australian tennis legends Rod Laver and Margaret Court.
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