Ranking Reaction: Daniil Medvedev is officially No. 1 on the ATP rankings

It’s official: Daniil Medvedev is No. 1 on the ATP rankings.

The Russian secured his rise to No. 1 last Thursday before he even took the court for his quarterfinal match in Acapulco. With Novak Djokovic falling in the quarterfinals of Dubai earlier that day, Medvedev was assured of taking over the top spot—he won his quarterfinal match against Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka anyway, 6-2, 6-3.

Afterwards, he admitted he didn’t know until after Djokovic’s loss that he had clinched it.

“I saw that he was losing, but I didn’t know that if he loses I’m gonna become No. 1,” Medvedev said. “I thought I have to do something big here. So then when I was receiving all the messages, I understood, okay, it’s gonna happen.”

Medvedev has won a plethora of big titles—his 13 career titles include one major (the 2021 US Open), one ATP Finals crown (in 2020), four Masters 1000s (Cincinnati and Shanghai in 2019, Paris in 2020 and Canada in 2021) and an ATP 500 (Tokyo in 2018).

He’s also won 43 of 50 matches since last August, reaching the semifinals or better at seven of the eight individual events he’s played in that stretch (the only pre-semifinal loss came at Indian Wells last October, where he still made the fourth round).

And it’s that mix of winning big titles and consistency that has helped the Russian reach new territory that others in his generation have yet to reach—last March he rose to No. 2, becoming the first man outside of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray to reach the Top 2 since July 24th, 2005, and now he’s the first man outside of those four to reach No. 1 since February 1st, 2004.

A few more notes on Medvedev becoming No. 1:
~ He’s the 27th No. 1 in ATP rankings history.
~ He’s the third Russian to reach No. 1 in ATP rankings history, after Yevgeny Kafelnikov (6 weeks at No. 1 in 1999) and Marat Safin (9 weeks at No. 1 in 2000 and 2001).
~ At 6’ 6”, he’s the tallest man ever to reach No. 1 on the ATP rankings.
~ At age 26, he’s the sixth-oldest man to reach No. 1, after John Newcome (30), Murray (29), Thomas Muster (28), Ilie Nastase (27) and Patrick Rafter (an older 26).
~ He’s the first new ATP No. 1 in the last five years, since Murray rose to No. 1 for the first time on November 7th, 2016 (in that time the WTA has had five new No. 1s in Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka and Ashleigh Barty).

Meanwhile, there are two more new career-highs in the Top 20 of the ATP rankings—though neither played this past week, Reilly Opelka and Carlos Alcaraz both hit new personal bests after Taylor Fritz dipped from No. 16 to No. 20, the 6’ 11” American rising from No. 18 to No. 17 and the Spanish teenager going from No. 20 to No. 19.

Spain’s Pedro Martinez makes his Top 50 debut, soaring from No. 72 to No. 50 after capturing the first ATP title of his career in Santiago, and former No. 35 Jiri Vesely makes a welcome return to the Top 100 after reaching the biggest final of his career at the ATP 500 in Dubai, jumping 49 spots from No. 123 to No.74.

Over on the WTA rankings, there’s a lot of movement in the Top 10: Barbora Krejcikova rises from No. 3 to a new career-high of No. 2, becoming the 40th woman to reach the Top 2 in WTA rankings history; Iga Swiatek goes from No. 8 back to her previous career-high of No. 4 after winning the WTA 1000 event in Doha; and Anett Kontaveit makes her Top 5 debut, rising from No. 7 to No. 5 after reaching the final in Doha.

And a big shout-out to 2017 US Open champion and former No. 3 Sloane Stephens, who rises from No. 58 to No. 39—her highest ranking in 13 and a half months—after winning her first title in almost four years in Guadalajara.