Djokovic knocked off top of world rankings
Djokovic, 34, will now return to the limbo status induced by his refusal to take the Covid vaccine.
Tennis star Novak Djokovic got a flavour of how hard it will be to regain his peak with limited playing options as he suffered his first defeat since his deportation drama — and lost his world No 1 status.
Jiri Vesely is a better player than a world ranking of 123 suggests, but the Czech qualifier’s 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) quarter-final defeat of Djokovic at the Dubai Duty Free Championships was still a shock. It means that Daniil Medvedev, of Russia, becomes the first player beyond the “big four” of Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray to hold the top ranking since 2004.
“I congratulate him,” Djokovic said of Medvedev after waving goodbye to a crowd for who knows how long. He had seemed resigned to relinquishing the top spot all week, but the surprise was that it came via what was only his 12th defeat to a man outside the top 100. The last time that happened was in 2018 when he was returning from surgery.
Djokovic, 34, will now return to the limbo status induced by his refusal to take the Covid vaccine. Most top players are planning their trips to the United States for the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments. Djokovic, the only unvaccinated player in the top 100, cannot go there, so faces another lay-off, with the next grand slam, the French Open, also in doubt.
Is this a concern as he tries to find a rhythm? “It is,” he said bluntly. “The more matches I play, the more comfortable I get on court. Obviously, I’ll have to follow the situation and see how it goes. Wherever I get an opportunity, I will play. Hopefully that will be soon.”
His goals are nebulous. “To keep on playing tennis,” he said. “That’s the ultimate goal. For as long as I really feel like it. Of course I’m still motivated. I’m still pissed off when I lose a match. I’m glad I’m feeling a lot of emotions every single day because it means that I really want to be part of this sport.”
Vesely, 28, celebrated his win by writing “Ukraine” on a TV camera lens, which provided some perspective to the Djokovic saga. Earlier in the day Andrey Rublev, a Russian, progressed to the semi-finals having woken up to find his country had declared war. On Sunday he won the doubles title in Marseilles with his partner, Denys Molchanov, who is Ukrainian. After saying he had been abused on Twitter for being Russian, Rublev added: “Even if they throw rocks at me I need to show I’m for peace.”
It was, nevertheless, a significant day for tennis. Djokovic has been the world No 1 for the past 86 weeks and a record 361 in all, almost a year more than Federer and three more than Nadal. The Moscow-born Medvedev, 26, beat Djokovic in last year’s US Open final and was the runner-up to Nadal in the Australian Open final odyssey last month. He is the third Russian to reach the top after Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marat Safin.
