Daniil Medvedev Picture Credit: Twitter
The world of tennis is set to welcome a new World No. 1 in men's singles category, with Novak Djokovic finally getting dethroned from the summit. After being forced to miss the Australian Open 2022 under controversial circumstances, Novak returned to court in Dubai Tennis Championships and was looking to get some more ATP points under his belt with a successful campaign.
However, a major upset took place in the quarter-final of tournament when Jiri Vesely, ranked No. 123, defeated the Serbian in straight sets (6-4, 7-6) to knock him out of the tournament. As a result of this outcome, it was also confirmed that Novak's record-breaking stay at top of ATP rankings will finally come to an end with Daniil Medvedev set to take the spot when the updated rankings are released on Monday (February 28).
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With this feat, the US Open 2021 champion and Australian Open 2022 runner-up will become the first player to become World No. 1 men's player in tennis, who is not a member of famous Big 4 (Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic).
Notably, Andy Roddick was the last player apart from the above mentioned players to have stayed at top of ATP rankings. After he was dethroned on 1 February 2004 by Roger Federer, the ultimate dominance of Big 4 began.
When Novak Djokovic climbed to the summit once again on 3 February 2020, he went on to create history. The Serbian remained World No. 1 for 361 weeks (rankings were frozen for 22 weeks in between) and will finally be replaced by Daniil Medvedev at the top of ATP rankings.
Unfortunately for the Russian, he could not celebrate this momentous occasion on court as he was defeated by Rafael Nadal in straight sets (3-6, 3-6) in the semi-final of Mexican Open 2022. But despite the setback, Medvedev will wake up next week as the new World No. 1. Wow!