Djokovic ties idol Sampras with ATP record sixth year-end No. 1 finish

With the draw for next week’s event in Sofia coming out on Friday—and Rafael Nadal’s name not on it—Novak Djokovic officially clinched the ATP’s year-end No. 1 ranking for 2020. It's his sixth time finishing a season on top of the ATP rankings, tying his childhood idol, Pete Sampras, for the record.

Nadal not only needed to win the Paris Masters this week and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London in two weeks, but was also required to pick up points in Sofia next week. Denis Shapovalov was revealed as the top seed at the 250-level event in the Bulgarian capital, respectively.

Djokovic has now been the ATP's year-end No. 1 in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2020. And at age 33, he's also the oldest year-end No. 1 in ATP rankings history.

“I’ve obviously been trying to end up the year as No. 1, which is one of the hardest things to do in the sport,” the Serb said in Vienna last week. “Of course, Pete Sampras has been my idol since I was growing up, so managing to match his six years of ending the season at No. 1 is just amazing.”

Sampras finished No. 1 on the ATP rankings six straight years between 1993 and 1998.

And Djokovic wasn’t too far from a few more year-end No. 1 finishes over the last decade. He was year-end No. 2 in 2013 (behind Nadal), 2016 (behind Andy Murray) and 2019 (behind Nadal). The only one of the last 10 years where he didn’t finish inside the Top 2 was in 2017, when he finished at No. 12—but that year he missed all tournaments after Wimbledon because of a right elbow injury.

The Serb has compiled a phenomenal year on the tour in 2020, highlighted by winning his 17th career Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, his 35th and 36th career Masters 1000 titles at Cincinnati and Rome right before and right after the US Open in the summer—which pushed him past Nadal for most Masters 1000 titles ever—as well as a 500-level crown in Dubai in February.

He also recently passed Sampras for second-most overall weeks at No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings—the Serb is currently spending his 293rd career week at the top spot. Roger Federer holds the record with 310 career weeks at No. 1, a benchmark Djokovic is primed to eclipse next March.

In just over a week, Djokovic will play his last tournament of the year at the ATP Finals, where he’s a five-time champion. He captured his first title there in 2008 (when it was staged in Shanghai) and then lifted four trophies in a row between 2012 and 2015 at The O2 Arena. Federer holds the record for most career ATP Finals titles with six.