{"id":57618,"date":"2023-06-30T07:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T11:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=57618"},"modified":"2023-06-30T01:31:24","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T05:31:24","slug":"novak-djokovic-real-world-number-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/06\/30\/novak-djokovic-real-world-number-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Like it or Not, Novak Djokovic is the Real World #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you open up the ATP rankings you\u2019ll see a certain Spaniard at the very top of the list. For many years this would have been a certain Rafael Nadal but right now it\u2019s none other than his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz. In one sense, after a stunning last 18 months<\/a>–including a maiden Grand Slam<\/a> in New York, as well as a handful of Masters titles–it\u2019s perhaps well deserved, but when you look at it in reality, there\u2019s no way he should be holding that top spot.<\/p>\n

Going into Wimbledon<\/a>, the 20-year-old will not only be the best player in the world according to the ATP but also the top seed, the first time in over 20 years it hasn\u2019t been occupied by either Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, or Andy Murray, which is absolutely crazy to think about.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic Deserves the #1 Ranking<\/h2>\n

But here\u2019s the problem, despite all his success, he\u2019s not the best player in the world, and it\u2019s hard to argue otherwise. There\u2019s four Grand Slams in tennis, the pinnacle of the sport and guess what, Novak Djokovic currently holds three of them, having won Wimbledon last year and then easing his way to Grand Slams #22 in Melbourne<\/a> and a record-breaking #23<\/a> in in Paris earlier this month. How can the best player in the world currently have one Grand Slam on his ranking whilst the second-best player has three? Also, the biggest event outside of these Grand Slams is also the ATP Finals, in which the best eight players in the world compete; no prizes for guessing who won that as well.<\/p>\n

Which only makes matters even worse because the fact we\u2019re even in this situation has a few different factors, and all that are somewhat laughable. The first obviously being Wimbledon\u2019s shameful and stupid decision<\/a> to ban Russians and Belarussians from competing last year. Following on from that, the ATP, WTA, and ITF all stripped Wimbledon of its ranking points<\/a>. (This makes sense. How can you award ranking points for an event if some athletes are barred from competing just because of where they’re born.) For the fourth Wimbledon in a row, of course, the Serbian superstar went onto win it. In 2022, though, he gained a whopping 0 points (in fact he lost the 2000 points he was defending from the previous year), the exact same as me and you–who didn\u2019t even play the event.<\/p>\n

With those 2000 ranking points the current 36-year-old should have received he would be 1750 points ahead of the the man 16 years his junior in the rankings. That\u2019s a Masters win, 500 title, and 250 trophy ahead, not a small difference at all. Now, you might just be thinking that Novak Djokovic isn\u2019t the best player in the world ranking wise because of Wimbledon, but it only gets worse.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>