Novak Djokovic joins elite club

[El Dude]

One more for road. With his third year as year-end #1, Novak Djokovic joins an elite club of players who have finished the year #1 three or more times:

ATP Era (1973-present)
6 Sampras
5 Connors, Federer
4 McEnroe, Lendl
3 Nadal, Djokovic

Actually, think about this: Of the 42 years of ATP rankings, those seven players are responsible for 30 (or 71%) of the year-end number one rankings.

Anyhow, congratulations once more to Novak Djokovic. An awesome achievement - and one that, I think, really sets him apart from the field of other 6-7 Slam winners (with the possible exception of McEnroe...for now).

 

[Billie]

Great job so far Nole, let's go for more!!!:clap

 

[GameSetAndMath]

With this thread, you have joined the elite club of posters who have started three different
threads within an hour. Congrats Dude. :snigger

 

[tented]

With this thread, you have joined the elite club of posters who have started three different
threads within an hour. Congrats Dude. :snigger

Uh oh ... this could get ugly. Not to be outdone, I'm imagining Kieran opening 12 threads in 12 minutes, followed by Front beginning 13 in 13 minutes ...

 

[Obsi]

Just to mention a very important thing. Connors has been ranked year-end No. 1 from 1974 to 1978 by the ATP but the majority disagreed the computer rankings. In 1975 all the journalists ranked Arthur Ashe as the number 1 in the world while his ATP ranking was only 4th. In 1977, no one, except the ATP ranking, considered that Connors was the best player in the world, and most thought that Borg was tennis king. And in 1978 everyone and in particular the ITF recognized that the Swede was the World Champion. As far as I know, since 1973, these players have been generally considered to be the best overall for the entire year:

1973—Nastase
1974—Connors
1975—Ashe
1976—Connors
1977—Borg
1978—Borg
1979—Borg
1980—Borg
1981—McEnroe
1982—Connors
1983—McEnroe
1984—McEnroe
1985—Lendl
1986—Lendl
1987—Lendl
1988—Wilander
1989—Becker
1990—Edberg
1991—Edberg
1992—Courier
1993—Sampras
1994—Sampras
1995—Sampras
1996—Sampras
1997—Sampras
1998—Sampras
1999—Agassi
2000—Kuerten
2001—Hewitt
2002—Hewitt
2003—Roddick
2004—Federer
2005—Federer
2006—Federer
2007—Federer
2008—Nadal
2009—Federer
2010—Nadal
2011—Djokovic
2012—Djokovic
2013—Nadal
2014—Djokovic

So, that would be

Sampras 6
Federer 5
Borg 4
Djokovic, Nadal, Connors, McEnroe Lendl 3

 

[Front242]

With this thread, you have joined the elite club of posters who have started three different
threads within an hour. Congrats Dude. :snigger

Uh oh ... this could get ugly. Not to be outdone, I'm imagining Kieran opening 12 threads in 12 minutes, followed by Front beginning 13 in 13 minutes ...

I'll aim for 242 in 2 hours 42 minutes

 

[El Dude]

Obri, good stuff - and welcome to the forum. It is always tricky deciding whether to go with ATP rankings or consensus opinion/sportswriters. Actually, in 2013 the latter had Nadal and Djokovic tied, I believe.

As far as 1977 goes, I think Vilas is also worthy - he won 2 Slams and was a finalist in another and won a bunch of other titles but still finished #2.

 

[isabelle]

Welcome to Stefan's daddy in this club