Thaindian News

London, July 4 (IANS) Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic, who has won 48 of his 49 matches this year, replaced Rafael Nadal as the new World No.1 Monday.

Nadal, who lost to Djokovic for fifth time this year Sunday, has been pushed to the second spot followed by Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling in the top five in the latest South African Airways ATP Rankings released Monday.

Djokovic was guaranteed to move to No. 1 as a result of his semifinal win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Friday.

Tsonga, who defeated six-times Wimbledon champion Federer in the quarterfinals, gained five places to move to the 14th.

Djokovic’s rise is also the end of the seven year domination of Federer-Nadal at the top.

Nadal had been No. 1 for the past 56 weeks since June 7, 2010, and 102 weeks overall. The last player to rank No. 1 before Nadal and Federer was American Andy Roddick, in the week of January 26, 2004.

“This is an amazing achievement to get to the top spot, especially with rivals such as Rafa and Roger,” the ATP website quoted Djokovic as saying.

“They made me work so hard and made me improve every day. There are no words to express how good they are but I always thought that I could become No. 1 one day. Both the belief and the hard work took me there,” said the winner of three majors.

At 24 years, the Belgrade native is the 25th player in the history of the ATP Rankings (since 1973) to hold the No. 1 position in men’s tennis.

Djokovic leads the ATP World Tour with a career-best eight titles in 2011, including his second Australian Open crown in January and his first Wimbledon trophy. He also captured four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome). His overall 43-match winning run, dating to last year’s Davis Cup final, is the third-longest streak in the Open era, behind Guillermo Vilas (46) and Ivan Lendl (44).

In May, Djokovic became the first player to qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. It is the fifth straight year that he has qualified for the elite eight-player tournament.

ATP executive chairman and president Adam Helfant said: “Novak’s results over the past year have been remarkable. His phenomenal success has come during an incredibly competitive era in men’s tennis and he is a truly deserving new ATP World Tour No.1.”