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Djokovic embraces new role, urges younger players to surpass his records

Novak Djokovic says he wants future players to break his records and will share his experience soon.

Published

5 months ago

August 27, 2025

Novak Djokovic has shifted from the centre of the so-called golden generation to a different responsibility within the game: encouraging the next wave while acknowledging the end of an era. He has said plainly, “I want somebody to break my record in the future or all of the records”.

Djokovic was one of the quartet who carried men’s tennis for more than two decades alongside Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. The Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic shared 66 Grand Slams between them. Federer was the first to 20 majors, Nadal reached 22 and Djokovic now stands on 24. Over recent years Djokovic also compiled numerous other milestones.

With Federer retiring in 2022 and both Murray and Nadal stepping away in 2024, Djokovic has seen a profound change at the top of the sport. He has new rivals in Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, but he admitted the transition has been emotionally difficult. During an appearance on the Jay Shetty Podcast he said:

“When Federer and Nadal and Murray, my biggest rivals, retired actually most recently in the in the last year or two, part of me left with them and I and I really feel that because and I thought it’s not going to be difficult for me to kind of shift my attention in terms of who are my principal rivals on the tour from them to someone else,” the former world No 1 revealed.

“But, you know, it is it is tough because I’m used to these names, these guys, these faces for 20 years and then new faces come in and it’s normal, how can I say evolution of our sport and it’s normal that you have new generations that are kind of come in and dominate the tour.

“I’m experiencing something I have never experienced before, but that’s that’s also fine, I’m trying to embrace this journey.

“But also I think what is very important to me personally and what I have expressed directly to all of my rivals currently today, the young guys who are going to be the carriers of the tennis for the next decade is that I’m here for them to share my experience even though it’s difficult because we’re facing each.

“But I still feel that in a way that’s also my role. It’s also my responsibility and it’s also a great opportunity for me to do that because it really fills my heart with joy that I’m able to convey my experiences, my knowledge, whatever that I can from my journey to a new generation.”

Beyond Grand Slams, Djokovic holds the record for most weeks at No 1 with 428 weeks, has won a record 40 ATP Masters 1000 titles, seven ATP Finals titles and leads the all-time prize money list with $188,934,053.

The 38-year-old added: “Naturally, the tennis should get better and we all want tennis to get better to be better and I want somebody to break my record in the future or all of the records. Why not? I mean this is how it should be.

“If I can contribute in a way where I can say ‘hey aside from the barriers that we created in a rivalry, if you need help with I don’t know public relations, if it’s you know marketing, if it’s dealing with the outside world as well that is very difficult dealing with anxiety’.

“We all have that you know we all know how it is to feel alone you let yourself down or you let other people down mental challenges in a high-level professional sport are 100% present with everyone.

“It’s just a matter of how you deal with it, who you have in your support system that can help you. So, I feel like it it was great when I was able as a kid to ask some of the the the guys who were playing at the top level, you know, some of the questions that were interesting me and that just hearing from them two or three sentences of how they think that they were dealing with it and how that affected them was huge to me.

“Even if you heard it from someone else, but just hearing it from them, it just has this resonant power and impact and it did help me a lot.”

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Anisimova Enters WTA Top 3 and Becomes the New American No. 1

Amanda Anisimova rises to No. 3 in the WTA rankings and becomes the top American player. ©Prange2025

Published

1 week ago

January 5, 2026

IN Tennis Times

Amanda Anisimova rises to a career-high No. 3 in the latest WTA rankings, marking her first appearance inside the Top 3 and establishing her as the top-ranked American player. She moves up from No. 4 while Coco Gauff drops from No. 3 to No. 4, a swap driven by this week’s points adjustments.

There were no tournaments last week, but points from Week 1 of 2025 have dropped off the rankings. Anisimova remains on 6,287 ranking points. Gauff’s total falls from 6,763 to 6,273 after last year’s United Cup results are removed. The net effect places Anisimova ahead of Gauff and makes her the highest-ranked American on either the ATP or WTA lists; Gauff is now the second-highest-ranked American.

Anisimova’s climb carries additional historical notes. She becomes just the third player born in the 2000s to reach the Top 3 in WTA history, and the fifth player born in that decade to achieve a Top 3 ranking across either the WTA or ATP. She is also the 15th American woman to reach the Top 3 since WTA rankings began in 1975. For context, 11 American men have reached the Top 3 since ATP rankings were introduced in 1973.

Other notable ranking changes this week include Linda Noskova moving from No. 13 to a personal best of No. 12. Clara Tauson slips from No. 12 to No. 14; Noskova lost her second match in Brisbane a year ago while Tauson won the Auckland title at the same time last season. Cristina Bucsa makes her Top 50 debut, rising from No. 51 to No. 50. Anastasia Potapova drops from No. 50 to No. 55; Bucsa lost in the first round in Brisbane last year while Potapova reached the third round.

Analytics & Stats Player News WTA

Hsieh Su-wei at 40: Four decades distilled into 40 defining numbers

Hsieh Su-wei turns 40: 40 milestones from No. 1 doubles weeks to Grand Slam and tour titles. Today!

Published

2 weeks ago

January 4, 2026

IN Tennis Times

Hsieh Su-wei celebrates her 40th birthday with a resume few peers can match. A concise selection of career milestones captures the arc of a player who has excelled in doubles, enjoyed late-career singles highlights and returned to the tour with sustained success.

She first reached No. 1 in doubles on May 12, 2014, becoming the first Taiwanese player to reach the top spot in tennis in either women’s or men’s, singles or doubles. She claimed two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2024 alongside Jan Zielinski; those were their first and third tournaments together. Her three WTA singles titles came in 2012 (Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou) and 2018 (Hiroshima).

Hsieh has won Grand Slam women’s doubles titles with four different partners: two with Peng Shuai, and one each with Barbora Strycova, Elise Mertens and Wang Xinyu. She has five Wimbledon titles, including four in women’s doubles (2013 with Peng, 2019 with Strycova, 2021 with Mertens and 2023 with Strycova) and one mixed in 2024 with Zielinski.

Her WTA Finals record features six appearances and a title in 2013 with Peng; she reached the semifinals in 2025 with Jelena Ostapenko. Across Grand Slams she owns seven women’s doubles majors, plus two mixed doubles majors. Indian Wells stands out among her 13 WTA 1000 doubles titles, winning it four times in 2014 (with Peng), 2018 (with Strycova), 2021 and 2014 (with Mertens).

Other highlights: she has 36 doubles wins in 2025 (36-18), 37 career tour-level doubles titles (35 women’s, two mixed), and 40 career tour-level titles overall (three singles, 35 women’s doubles and two mixed). She spent 59 weeks at No. 1 in doubles and is one of only 18 women to log 50 or more weeks at the top. Her Top 10 and Top 15 singles victories mostly arrived in her 30s, including her first Top 10 singles win at Roland Garros in 2017 and a landmark win over reigning No. 1 Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2018.

Early markers include a perfect 30-0 start below tour level at 15 in 2001 and her first Grand Slam doubles title at Wimbledon in 2013. She retired from singles in 2024 after Miami. Hsieh is the top seed in doubles in Brisbane this week alongside Jelena Ostapenko.

Analytics & Stats ATP Player News

Alcaraz Tops 2025 ATP Earnings List and Clears $60 Million in Career Prize Money

Alcaraz tops 2025 ATP prize money with over $21 million and passes $60 million career total. Update

Published

3 weeks ago

December 24, 2025

IN Tennis Times

The ATP’s final prize money standings for 2025 confirm a season dominated by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Alcaraz led the tour with more than $21 million in prize money for the year, while Sinner followed with north of $19 million. World No. 3 Alexander Zverev ranked third on the list with $7.5 million.

Alcaraz’s 2025 total is the second-highest single-season haul in ATP history, behind only Novak Djokovic’s 2015 figure. Sinner’s earnings for 2025 also produced a milestone: he became the first player to exceed $19 million in a season and the first to top $16 million in two different seasons.

Beyond the single-season figures, Alcaraz’s 2025 earnings pushed his career prize money past $60 million. That achievement marks him as the first player, male or female, born since 2000 to reach that level. The draft also notes that he is the first player born since 1988 to pass the $60 million mark.

The final prize money leaderboard underlines the financial gap at the very top of men’s tennis in 2025, with the two leading players combining for the bulk of top-year payouts. The published top-10 list for 2025 places Alcaraz and Sinner well clear of the next tier, with Zverev as the highest earner after them.

These numbers frame a season in which prize money concentrated at the top for a small group of players. Alcaraz’s performance in 2025 not only reinforced his place as the year’s top earner but also cemented a rapid climb in career earnings, while Sinner’s consistency produced an unprecedented dual-season benchmark in annual pay.