Novak Djokovic on course to break rankings record in February

James Richardson 06 Feb 2023 2:10 PM

Novak Djokovic is now just two weeks away from drawing level with Steffi Graf as the longest-reigning world No 1 in the history of rankings.

Djokovic already holds the ATP Rankings record having held the top spot for a total of 375 weeks.

It looks likely that Djokovic will retain the No 1 ranking through the time he needs to break the record during the coming month.

While Djokovic will not be in action in the coming week, he is set to return for the Dubai Tennis Championships which is the first tournament of the current season at which he has points to defend.

Last season, on his return to the tour after the great Australian Open kerfuffle, Djokovic reached the last eight in Dubai.

However, by that time it appears that Djokovic might already be guaranteed to snatch the all-time record away from Graf and push his ATP record to new bounds.

There were few changes to the ATP Rankings this week given that the Davis Cup qualifiers were pushed into the slot which means that only a handful of players would lose rankings points.

Last season the Montpellier and Cordoba Open events took place in week five while this year they are moved to week six alongside the event in Dallas.

That also sees the Rotterdam and Buenos Aires events shifted a week as well as they are pushed into the seventh week of the calendar.

One of the top players to suffer a significant loss of points is Alexander Zverev, who also faces a tough start to the season with his start to the 2022 term currently keeping him in the top 20.

Zverev was a finalist in Montpellier last season, where he lost the championship match to Alexander Bublik.

Bublik dropped 14 places in the rankings with no ability to defend the points won in 2022 and is now world No 50, while Cordoba Open champion Albert Ramos-Vinolas also tumbled 17 places to become world No 54.

In the coming week, the top-ranked players in action will be world No 8 Taylor Fritz, who will be in Dallas and world No 9 Holger Rune who is the top seed in Montpellier.

The Dallas Open has a strong local field with the draw headlined by top seed Fritz and second seed Frances Tiafoe.

Reilly Opelka is unable to defend his title in Dallas, although Bublik is in the field in Montpellier.