Who Is the Number One Tennis Player in the World?
The answer to this question may surprise you – it’s not Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. In fact, it’s a 20-year-old from Japan named Naomi Osaka.
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian tennis player who is currently ranked as the number one tennis player in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals. He has won seventeen Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any male player in the Open Era. He is also a former world No. 1 in junior tennis.
Early life and background
Novak Djokovic was born on May 22, 1987, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to Srdjan and Dijana (née Bednarevic) Djokovic. He has two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, who are also tennis players with professional aspirations. His parents immigrated from Croatia in the 1970s.
Djokovic began playing tennis at age four and was soon identified as a remarkably talented player. His potential was further realized when he met Jelena Gencic, a former Yugoslav Wimbledon competitor who took him under her wing and became his first coach. When Djokovic was 12 years old, Gencic predicted that he would become one of the world’s best players and even compared him to Rod Laver and Björn Borg.
Professional career
Novak Djokovic began playing tennis at age four and entered his first international tournament at age 12. He turned professional in 2003, at the age of 16.
Djokovic has won numerous prestigious tournaments throughout his career, including Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He is currently ranked as the No. 1 tennis player in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Major achievements
Some of Novak Djokovic’s major achievements are:
-He has been ranked World No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for a total of 223 weeks, starting on 4 July 2011.
-He has also been ATP’s year-end No. 1 five times, in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018.
-Djokovic is one of only eight men to have won all nine Masters 1000 tournaments, and he is the only man to have won all nine ATP Tour Masters 1000 tournaments on three different surfaces (hard court, clay court and grass court).
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal has been the number one tennis player in the world for a while now. He is a Spanish professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 2 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Nadal has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second most in history for a male player, as well as a record 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 20 ATP Tour 500 titles, and 13 Wimbledon titles. He is the only male player in tennis history to win all four Grand Slams on clay.
Early life and background
Rafael Nadal was born in Mallorca, Spain, to Sebastián Nadal, a businessman who owns an insurance company, and Ana María Parera, a housewife. He has a younger sister named María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a professional footballer, who played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team.
Nadal’s father made him start tennis lessons at age 4 because he wanted his son to become sportsman when he grew up. When Nadal was 12 years old he met Carlos Costa who would later become his agent. At that time Costa noticed Nadal’s talent and decided to help him develop his career in tennis.
Professional career
Rafael Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player ranked world No. 1 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second most by a male player, as well as four Olympic gold medals and two Davis Cups. Nadal has held the French Open singles title a record 10 times and was also the first man to win all four Grand Slam tournaments on clay.
Nadal has won 91 ATP singles titles, including 12 Masters 1000 events and six ATP Finals, making him the second most decorated active male player after Roger Federer. In majors, Nadal has won a record 35 men’s singles titles at the French Open, three at the Wimbledon Championships, two at the US Open, and one at the Australian Open. He also shares with Pete Sampras and Federer the distinction of having won all four majors on three different surfaces (hardcourt, clay court, and grass court), while he is also the only player to have won two majors on three different surfaces in a single calendar year (2010).
Major achievements
Rafael Nadal has won numerous titles and accolades throughout his career, including 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the Olympic gold medal in singles, a record-tying 11 French Open singles titles, a record 8 Wimbledon singles titles, and 2 US Open singles titles. He has also won 3 ATP Finals.
Roger Federer
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Federer has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles—the most in history for a male player—and has held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a record 310 weeks.
Early life and background
Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981, in Basel, Switzerland. His parents, Robert Federer and Lynette DuRand, both natives of South Africa, met while attending the University of Texas at Austin. Roger has one sister, Diana. He speaks Swiss German, Standard German, English, and French fluently.
Federer grew up on the same Straße as fellow tennis greats Jakob Hlasek and Marc Rosset. Rosset introduced him to tennis when he was six years old and Hlasek helped him hone his skills when he was nine or ten. Unlike many professional athletes who leave home at an early age to train at a specific academy or with a personal coach, Federer continued to live at home with his parents until he was eighteen and decided to turn professional.
Professional career
Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles—the most in history for a male player—and has held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for 310 weeks, including 237 consecutive weeks. After turning professional in 1998, he was continuously ranked in the top ten from October 2002 to November 2016. He re-entered the top ten following his victory at the 2017 Australian Open. In majors, Federer has won a record eight Wimbledon titles, six Australian Open titles, five US Open titles (all consecutively, a record streak of five), and one French Open title. Aged 36 years and 322 days when he won his eighth Wimbledon title on 16 July 2017, Federer became the oldest male singles champion at Wimbledon since Arthur Ashe in 1975 at age 35 years 325 days old.
Federer’s ATP tournament records include winning the most Davis Cup matches (42) of any player ever; appearing in 14 finals—a joint Open Era record shared with Ivan Lendl—and winning 10finals; appearing in 17 semifinals at Grand Slams; and reaching consecutive Major semifinals 37 times—an all-time men’s record he shares with Djokovic— as well as appearing in 19 consecutive Major quarterfinals, also an all-time men’s record he shares with Rafael Nadal and Djokovic. He has reached a record 31 men’s singles Grand Slam finals, including 10 straight between 2005 and 2014 – both records for any male player – winning a record-tying seven Wimbledon finals and a joint-record six Australian Open finals. He is one of only eight men to win all four Grand Slam singles tournaments, one of only two players to achieve this “Career Golden Slam” (gold medal at the Olympic Games plus all four major championships), and is considered by many commentators and players to be among the greatest tennis players of all time.
Major achievements
Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles—the most in history for a male player—and has held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a record 310 weeks.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked number one in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, which is more than any other player in the Open Era. Williams has also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and she is the only player to have completed the Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.
Early life and background
Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She has an older sister named Yetunde, who died in 2003. The family moved from Compton, California, to West Palm Beach, Florida, when Serena and her sister were young so that their father could develop their tennis skills. Serena showed interest in tennis at a young age and started playing tennis when she was just four years old. When she was nine years old, her father took her and her sister to watch a women’s tennis tournament in Florida. That is when Serena Williams decided that she wanted to be a professional tennis player just like the ones she saw on television.
Serena Williams rose to prominence in the early 2000s with a series of victories in Grand Slam singles tournaments. She became the world No. 1 ranked player in 2002 and has held that ranking for much of the time since then. With 39 Grand Slam titles (including 23 singles titles), Williams is tied with Margaret Court for the most major wins by a female player in the Open era. Additionally, she has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles (with her sister Venus Williams) and two mixed doubles titles (with Max Mirnyi).
Professional career
Serena Williams has been a professional tennis player since 1995. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other player in the Open Era. She is also a five-time Wimbledon singles champion and has won a record-tying four Olympic gold medals in women’s singles tennis.
Williams has won a total of 72 singles titles, the third-most in the Open Era behind Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. She is tied with Margaret Court for second on the all-time list for most major wins with 24, behind only Steffi Graf’s 22. Serena has reached at least one Grand Slam final in each of the last 14 years, tied for the second-longest streak in history with Helen Wills Moody.
Major achievements
Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, which is more than any other player in the history of professional tennis. Williams has also been ranked No. 1 in the world in singles on eight separate occasions.
