Daniil Medvedeva 26-year-old Muscovite, officially became the third Russian on Monday and the twenty-seventh player in history to reach number one in world tennis, by snatching supremacy from the Serbian Novak Djokovicwhich held the top spot for an unprecedented 361 weeks.
Despite losing in the semifinals of Acapulco against the Spanish Rafa Nadal -winner of the tournament who earns a place in the list to place fourth-, Medvedev unseated Djokovic by adding 8,615 points compared to 8,465 for the Serbian.
In this way, Daniil follows in the footsteps of his compatriots Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who spent six weeks at the top of the list, and Marat Safin (nine)their Russian predecessors at the top of the ranking.
Lead a curious statistic
Medvedev is also the tallest player among the world tennis numbers, at 198 centimeters tall, and the sixth oldest to access that position for the first time.
“Of course, I am happy with number one. It was my goal since my young youth and especially in recent times. I have received messages from many people and from other players and I want to thank everyone for their great support,” the new world leader commented on the ATP page.
The last time a tennis player debuted the world number one was five years ago, when the British Andy Murray did it on November 7, 2016.
Medvedev, who broke into the world top-100 in November 2016 when he was 20 years oldsecured the lead last Thursday when Djokovic lost in the quarterfinals of Dubai against the czech Jiry Vesely.
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13 ATP titles
In his history is a Grand Slam tournament (the US Open 2021) and a Masters 1000 (Toronto 2021), among the 13 titles he has won on the ATP circuit.
Nadal, 4th position
Medvedev and Djokovic precede the German Alexander on the world list Zverev and Raphael Nadalwho snatches fourth place from the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Within the top 20 are three other Spaniards: Roberto Bautista (15), Pablo Carreno (16) and Carlos Alcaraz (19).
Argentines Diego Schwartzman (14) and Federico Delbonis (36) are the highest ranked Latin American players.
