Newly-crowned Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic will rise in the ATP rankings on Monday following his 17th Grand Slam haul at the Melbourne Park with a 6-4 4-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 win against Austria's Dominic Thiem. Djokovic will replace Rafael Nadal to take the top spot.
Djokovic had lost the top spot last year in November to Nadal who had capped off an impressive 2019 with Roland Garros and US Open win. However, with wins in ATP Cup and successfully defending his Australian Open crown on Sunday, he will reclaim the top spot on Monday with 9720 points as per Live ATP Rankings. Nadal will move to the second spot on failing to reach the final, while Roger Federer will retain the third spot. For Thiem, he will take his career-high fourth spot with 7045 points, with his maiden Grand Slam appearance on a hard court.
The Serbian will now have the chance to overtake Federer (310) and Pete Sampras (286) for most weeks as number one. He will surpass Sampras on April 20 and Federer on October 5.
Djokovic said: "I would like to start by saying congratulations to Dominic for an amazing tournament, it was a tough match but you were very close to winning it. You have a lot more time in your career and I am sure you will get Grand Slam trophies. I would like to thank my team, my family, my brother is here - thank you for coming all the way to Australia for some quality brother time and hopefully you enjoyed it."
17 slams in his tennis career, and still stands third in the all-time list - two behind Rafael Nadal (19) and three behind Roger Federer (20). The troika have now won 57 of the last 67 Grand Slams played.
