Dubai // Last summer, Andy Roddick, a BBC pundit for the Wimbledon fortnight, was asked why he retired from the game at the age of 30.
“That’s why I retired,” the American, a former world No 1, replied. “I was up 5-4 [in my career series] on Novak [Djokovic].”
Roddick, known for his quick-fire humour, definitely said that in jest, but the fact is, that head-to-head record against Novak Djokovic, who celebrated his 700th win on the ATP World Tour on Thursday night, puts the 2003 US Open champion in rare company.
He is just one of two former ATP No 1s – the other being maverick Russian Marat Safin (2-0) – to boast a winning record against the Serb.
Carlos Moya, like Roddick and Safin, was fortunate to play Djokovic when he was not really at his peak and the Spaniard finished his career with a 2-2 record against the Serb.
But the rest, including two of the greatest No 1s the sport has seen, Roger Federer (23-22) and Rafael Nadal (24-23), trail the irrepressible Serb in head-to-head.
Among the other players to hold the No 1 ranking, Djokovic is 6-1 against Lleyton Hewitt and 2-1 against Juan Carlos Ferrero, which means the Serb is 61-56 in his career against opponents who have been to the peak of the ATP rankings.
If you put that stat into the larger context, virtually every 11th of his 700 wins has come against an opponent who has been ranked No 1 in his career.
Delve further and you will find that more than 32 per cent of those wins (227) have come against players who have been ranked No 5 or higher in their careers.
Even against the best of his peers, the members of what we call the Big Five club, he has a winning percentage of 60 (88-58).
Those stats look really impressive today, but about seven years ago, Djokovic was in danger of becoming tennis’ great unfulfilled talent due to his many health issues and, of course, mental frailties.
"The first player that breaks down is most likely to lose a big match in pressure moments," Djokovic said at the start of the week here at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, as he talked about how he has built his mental fortitude over the years.
“I was that player for sometime, of course, but I managed to learn and believe that I can improve and I, of course, owe a great gratitude to people for surrounding me and also helping me build my mental strength.”
Djokovic, of course, does not take that mental strength of granted.
He has a “daily programme” to help him “maintain that level of concentration and strength”, and the routine is obviously paying rich dividends.
Ten of his 11 grand slam titles have come since the start of 2011, and he has won five of the last seven majors to climb up the charts of the sport’s legends.
Now, with his 6-1, 6-2 win over Tunisian wild card Malek Jaziri, he has become only the 12th male in the Open era to record 700 Tour wins. The list includes his coach Boris Becker (713) and only two current players – Federer (1,067) and Nadal (775).
There are two other milestones on the horizon and Djokovic, if he plays to form, should achieve them by the end of this week.
Starting with the 2015 Australian Open, the Djoker has played 17 consecutive finals and if reaches another this weekend in Dubai, he will equal Ivan Lendl’s 1981-82 record of consecutive finals.
And if he wins his fifth Dubai crown, the Serb will join Lendl, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg at the top of the list with most titles in a row.
Djokovic has won seven on the trot. Can anyone stop him from extending that record? Difficult to see that happening, especially with Roger Federer not in the draw this week.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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