After playing through the pain on the way to winning the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic is set for an on-court return in Miami this month.
Not that you would know it, but Novak Djokovic was actually injured while he was busy winning the recent Australian Open. Not content to take an extended break, the 33-year-old has confirmed that he will take to the court in Miami for the ATP Masters 1000 event beginning on March 22.
It’s been an auspicious week for Djokovic on another front as well. Though he’s still a couple of grand-slams behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on the all-time winner’s list, he has surpassed him in one aspect: he now holds the record for most time spent at world no.1, an astonishing 311 weeks.
The hardcourt master should go deep into the tournament, (he’s won it six times). He’ll then head to Europe for a couple of tournaments in Monaco and Serbia respectively, all in preparation for the next slam in the calendar, the French Open, which will kick off on May 17.
The race for the all-time number of grand slams is set to be fascinating in the next few years. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal sit on 20 titles each, with Djokovic on 18. Federer can’t play forever — he’ll be 40 this year — and Nadal is all-but assured a victory in the French Open (barring injury). So it seems that Djokovic and Nadal will be duking it out for that particular record, as they reach the autumn of their careers.
One thing’s for sure, Novak is at the top of the rankings and it will be hard to knock him off that perch anytime soon.
“Big day today.”
Novak Djokovic has surpassed Roger Federer’s all-time men’s record of weeks spent at No.1.
👉https://t.co/A8Ns6c8f1X pic.twitter.com/3AR46NEjNf
— CNN Sport (@cnnsport) March 8, 2021
