In my today’s weekend blog, I am writing about the game of Tennis. Since the introduction of rankings in 1970, they have become the yardstick for excellence. While not everyone agrees with how the rankings work, they do give us a black-and-white image of a player’s performance. Listed below are ten male players who have spent the longest time at the top with the No. 1 ranking
10 Lleyton Hewitt- He spent 80 weeks at the top, with 75 consecutive weeks at the top of the rankings. He was year-end No. 1 twice during his career.
9 Andre Agassi– He is one of just nine men to have spent 100 weeks or more at No. 1. His longest stretch at No. 1 lasted 52 weeks, and in total, he spent 101 weeks as the ranking’s king.
8 Bjorn Borg- Arguably one of tennis’ greats, whose impressive overall record comes despite him quitting the game before he had reached his prime. He repeatedly traded the No. 1 ranking with Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, and he was at the summit for 109 weeks in total.
7 John McEnroe-Borg’s greatest rival got over on him in this regard, and he not only ended Borg’s final run at the top, and spent 170 weeks at the top. He was No. 1 for 14 separate streaks, more than any other player in the history of rankings.
6 Rafael Nadal- He has spent 209 weeks at the top of the rankings. He may yet return to the top of the rankings in 2002, as he is still an active player on the tour.
5 Jimmy Connors– He enjoyed an incredible career and would see 19 years pass between his first ascension to the world No. 1 ranking and his final slide off the top. Across 19 years, he was Ni. 1 for 268 weeks enjoying fierce rivalries with Borg, McEnroe, and Ivan Lendl.
4 Ivan Lendl– He was part of the small club of top players that helped tennis enjoy a boom in the 1970s and 1980s. A cool, marketable professional athlete, he backed his image with performance on the court spending 270 weeks on top.
3 Pete Sampras- Only Sampras and Connors have enjoyed two 80+ weeks stay at the top of the rankings. He was the dominant force in tennis in the late 1990s and early 2000s and would end up being No. 1 for 286 weeks.
2 Roger Federer– He enjoyed the single longest run at top of the rankings, holding No. 1 status from 2nd February 2004 until 17th August 2008. He spent a total of 310 weeks at the top across six reigns as World No. 1.
1 Novak Djokovic– He has been relentless in his pursuit of excellence with no man in history claiming the year-end No. 1 ranking more often than him. He is still active on the tour, which suggests he will yet again become the World No. 1 and add to the impressive 373 weeks he has spent as the top-ranked men’s player in the world.
Since February 2004, it has so happened that most of the time the World No.1 ranking has been earned by only 3 players and they are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic. If you combine their stay at the top of ranking at the top, it comes to 892 weeks, which is slightly more than 17 years. So in the period spanning from February 2004 till date, ie period of 18 years and 8 months, these three players have occupied the top ranking for a little above 17 years, an amazing feat. Can you imagine, if each one of them had a solo reign then how many weeks that player would have spent on the top?
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
14th October 2022.