Djokovic defeated Ruud 6-4 6-3 in less than two hours to progress to the final of the Rome Masters and in doing so, finally earned himself the 1,000th match win of his career. The world No 1 admitted he had been waiting for the moment after watching his two biggest rivals achieve the same milestone, saying: “Obviously I was seeing Roger and Rafa celebrate in the last couple of years and I was looking forward to get to that 1000 myself.”
Admitting his rivals gave him some motivation, Djokovic will be pleased to know he also beat Federer to reaching win number 1,000 relative to how many matches they played to reach the milestone, though he was just pipped to the post by Nadal. The Serb was playing his 1,203rd match when he clinched a 1,000th victory.
21-time Grand Slam champion Nadal needed 1,201 matches to reach a 1,000th win, meaning Djokovic was only two shy of matching his rival. But the world No 1 will take some comfort in the knowledge that he still reached the significant victory before Federer did, as the Swiss ace needed 1,227 matches – the most of all five men to have at least 1,000 match wins under their belt.
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But all of the Big Three were outdone by retired legends Connors and Lendl, who needed 1,164 and 1,199 matches respectively to get their 1,000th wins. After clinching 1,000 victories, Connors went on to win 1,274 matches over the course of his career while Lendl retired on 1,068.
Federer, who is still active but has not played since Wimbledon last year as he continues to recover from a third knee surgery, has 1,251 wins and counting while Nadal is just ahead on 1,051. And Djokovic will already be hoping to make it 1,001 by winning a sixth title in Rome when he faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in Sunday’s final.
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