Jannik Sinner recently became only the eighth tennis player in history to reach the 10000-point milestone in the ATP rankings. The Italian tennis star has been in the top spot of the ATP rankings for the past 13 weeks. Interestingly, he’s the first Italian to reach the feat in tennis history.
Sinner is expected to stay in first place for a couple of coming months, as he currently has a 3000-point lead over second-placed Alexander Zverev of Germany. Before Sinner, the last tennis player to complete the milestone was Daniil Medvedev, who became the World No. #1 in February 2022.
However, he completed the 10000-point milestone in January 2023. The likes of former American tennis stars Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi have also crossed the mark during the prime period of their professional careers.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray enjoyed a stellar campaign in 2016, when he won nine titles and became the World No. #1 for the first time. In addition to that, he also became only the sixth player to breach the 10000-point mark. However, the question is, which player holds the record for most ATP ranking points in tennis history?
Two decades, the period between 2003 and 2023, was massively dominated by the Big Three. They won a total of 66 singles Grand Slam titles and ruled the ATP rankings. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are the only three tennis players, who have crossed the 15000-point mark.
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Tennis icons such as Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg are not on the list because the ranking system was different during their time. The King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, who spent 209 weeks as the World No. #1, did not garner the biggest total of ATP ranking points. He’s third with a total of 15,390 and he reached the total on April 20, 2009.
Nadal was only 22-year-old at the time and was seen as one of the biggest prospects in tennis. He will retire as one of the greatest tennis players in history. However, injuries restricted his career to limited success.
In 2006 November, Swiss Maestro Roger Federer rose to 15903 points as he won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open and ATP Finals. He also ended as a runner-up in Roland Garros, losing to Nadal. He also triumphed in Indian Wells, Miami, Canada and Madrid in the same year.
However, the record is held by Novak Djokovic with a total of 16,950 points. In June 2016, he became the only player to accumulate more than 16000 rankings points. At the time, he was the champion at all four Grand Slams. In 2015, he picked up the title in London and New York.
Meanwhile, he was also the champion at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. It was Djokovic’s first French Open title, and Rafael Nadal withdrew from the third round at Stade Roland Garros due to a left wrist injury.
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