Djokovic confirmed world ace

Wozniacki remains on top despite a Grand Slam title drought.

PARIS:

Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic was confirmed as the new world number one when the ATP rankings were released yesterday.

Djokovic, who beat former world number one Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final, was already guaranteed to move ahead of the Spaniard following the Serb’s semi-final defeat of Jo-Wilfrid Tsonga. It ends Nadal’s 56-week rein since he took over from Roger Federer on June 7, 2010.

Not since Andy Roddick in the week of January 26, 2004 has anyone other than Nadal or Federer been ranked number one.

“This is an amazing achievement to get to the top spot, especially with rivals such as Rafa and Roger,” said Djokovic.

“They made me work so hard and made me improve every day. There are no words to express how good they are but I always thought that I could become number one, one day. Both the belief and the hard work took me there.”

‘Impossible for Djokovic to keep winning’

Nadal insists that current world number one Novak Djokovic cannot keep winning and he will be first in the queue ready to pounce when the Serb finally cracks.

“My experience says this level is not forever,” said 10-time Grand Slam winner Nadal.

“Probably the level of Novak of today is not forever. I’m going to be here fighting all the time, waiting for my moment to beat him another time.”

Wozniacki stays
number one

Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki remains on top of the women’s singles rankings in spite of her failure once again to land a Grand Slam title.

The 20-year-old has now spent 38 weeks in the number one position but has only ever reached one Grand Slam final – the US Open in 2009 – and was knocked out in the fourth round at Wimbledon this year.

Petra Kvitova’s reward for winning the Wimbledon crown was a move up one place to seventh in the world, while the woman she beat in the final, Maria Sharapova, also edges up one place to number five even though she lost to Kvitova in the final while French Open champion Li Na slips two places to number six.

The biggest mover in the women’s rankings was the German Sabine Lisicki, a wildcard entry at the Wimbledon Championships this year where she went on to lose to Sharapova in the semi-finals.

Men’s rankings                             Women’s rankings

1. Novak Djokovic                         Caroline Wozniacki (9915)

2. Rafael Nadal                              Kim Clijsters (7625)

3. Roger Federer                           Vera Zvonareva (6695)

4. Andy Murray                              Victoria Azarenka

5. Robin Soderling                        Maria Sharapova

6. David Ferrer                               Li Na

7. Gael Monfils                              Petra Kvitova

8. Mardy Fish                                 Francesca Schiavone

9. Tomas Berdych                         Marion Bartoli

10. Andy Roddick                         Samantha Stosur

11. Richard Gasquet                     Andrea Petkovic

12. Jurgen Melzer                          Svetlana Kuznetsova

13. Nicolas Almagro                      Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

14. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga                 Agnieszka Radwanska

15. Stanislas Wawrinka                Jelena Jankovic

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2011.