Novak Djokovic holds the record for most wins at all of the Grand Slams, but now has finally reached at least 85 wins at each and every one of them after his fourth-round win at the US Open.
Djokovic was in good form in his fourth-round victory against Croatian qualifier Borna Gojo, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. He was doing a good job of absorbing his opponent's big shots, neutralising his heavy serve, and in the end, he restricted the joy that Gojo could really get out of dictating with his enormous forehand groundstroke.
Djokovic had to bide his time in spells of the match, but in the end, he continued to force Gojo to play high risk, aim for the lines and get the errors to create the break opportunities he wanted. In recent years, Djokovic seems to have swept up all the records that tennis has to offer.
He is the overwhelmingly dominant player at the ATP Masters 1000 level, having won the most titles at that tier of competition with 39 titles. In addition to this, Djokovic recently moved into the position of most Grand Slam title wins at 23, and, of course, Djokovic has spent the longest time at World No.1 than any other player, having stayed there for a mind-boggling 389 weeks.
These numbers are something many would not have thought would be possible, but Djokovic continues to break each and every one of them.
It could be argued that the US Open was one of Djokovic's least dominant Grand Slams in comparison. He started off with complete command of the Australian Open hard courts and made that tournament his own at times. In recent years, he has propelled himself amongst the greats on the grass courts of Wimbledon in addition.
Because of Djokovic's fourth round win last night, it means that he now has at least 85 singles wins in every Grand Slam. He's won 85 and lost 13 matches at the US Open, and his most impressive numbers come at the Australian Open having won 89 and lost merely 8 matches.
Djokovic's focus and motivation may not be on the records and these kind of numbers, but they are simply reflective of his unbelievable longevity and dominance at the top of the sport. It is crazy to think that his first Grand Slam win came in 2008, fifteen years ago, and yet he is still close to his best level in the twilight years of his career.
This level of longevity is something that just has to be respected, especially in modern tennis, where the physical nature of tennis has heightened so much in the last 10 years.
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