Djokovic Breaks Federer's Record for Weeks at World No. 1

Novak Djokovic starts his 311th week as world number one today (Monday, March 8), taking the men's record outright from Roger Federer. The Serb drew level with Federer's 310 weeks last Monday and has now moved clear on his own.

The 33-year-old reaches the milestone in ominous form. Last month he won his ninth Australian Open and 18th Grand Slam title, beating Daniil Medvedev in the final, and he sits more than 2,000 ranking points clear of Rafael Nadal in second. BBC Sport reports that he has been number one for all but 32 weeks since Federer reached 310 in June 2018. His longest unbroken run at the top was 122 weeks, between July 2014 and November 2016.

Djokovic made no secret of how much the record meant to him, or of what comes next:

After achieving the historic number one for the longest weeks at number one, it's going to be a relief for me because I'm going to focus all my attention on slams mostly.

That means chasing the 20 majors held by Federer and Nadal, two more than his current tally. Steffi Graf's 377 weeks remains the overall record across the men's and women's game.

Djokovic is one of the best-known plant-based athletes on the planet and an executive producer of The Game Changers. He doesn't call himself vegan, and he has said he eats fish now and then, but most of what's on his plate comes from plants and he credits the switch with clearing up allergies that once troubled him. Speaking at the Australian Open last year, he told reporters: "I'm very pleased to be plant-based and play at this level. There's been a lot of criticism. People around me didn't really think that I could do that."

It has been quite a run. Djokovic won his eighth Australian Open a year ago, took a record 36th Masters 1000 title in Rome in September and finished 2020 as year-end number one for a record-equaling sixth time. Before all that he saved two championship points to beat Federer in the longest Wimbledon final.

311 weeks and counting. Powered by plants.