Djokovic Drops to No. 11 in ATP Rankings
After a five-set US Open loss to Mariano Navone, the Serbian has slipped outside the ATP Top 10 on the live rankings for the first time since July 2018, with confirmation due September 14.
Novak Djokovic sat on the bench beside the court in New York, a towel draped over his head, his racket resting against his knees. A few feet away, on the other side of the net, Mariano Navone was celebrating his trip to the next round of the US Open. Five sets, nearly four hours of fighting, and an ending that cost Djokovic far more than a single match.
The scoreline read 3-2 in sets, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. A loss hurts any player, but this one carries a second price. Djokovic lost 790 points for failing to defend last year’s semifinal run in New York, and that alone was enough to push him out of the world’s top ten.
On the live rankings tracked by Mondo, he currently sits at No. 11 with 2,980 points, a drop of six places from the No. 5 spot he held going into the tournament. Some precision is needed here, because sources disagree on whether the fall is already official. Mondo already lists Djokovic as the world’s 11th ranked player on the current live snapshot. Nova.rs and Sport Media, on the other hand, report that Novak has “officially” fallen out of the Top 10, while both outlets note in the same breath that the new ATP rankings, the ones published every Monday, will not come out until September 14. Until that date, in other words, the current placement is only a preview of what the list will formally confirm.
Whenever it is officially recorded, it will mark a moment Djokovic has not experienced in nearly a decade. He was last outside the Top 10 on July 15, 2018, when, recovering from elbow surgery, he had slipped as far as No. 21. Since then, he has spent 959 consecutive weeks in the Top 10, one of the longest streaks in the sport’s history.
And the situation is not settled yet. If Learner Tien or Frances Tiafoe reach the US Open quarterfinals, Djokovic could slide even further in a worst case scenario, down to No. 13. Jakub Mensik, Rafael Hodar, Alexander Bublik and Casper Ruud are also within striking distance before the year is out, players who could overtake him on points in the coming months if he fails to add to his own tally at upcoming tournaments.
The numbers still show that his ranking position has not been the true measure of Djokovic’s class for a long time. The Serb remains the outright record holder for weeks spent at No. 1, with 428, ahead of Roger Federer’s 310. The same holds for the top two spots combined, where Djokovic has 599 weeks to Rafael Nadal’s 596, and for the top three, 764 against Federer’s 750. Among the top four and top five in the world he is also ahead of everyone else, with 829 and 873 weeks respectively, compared with Federer’s 804 and 856. The one record that still eludes him is total weeks in the Top 10. There, Federer leads with 968, and Djokovic, after this drop, now trails him with 959.
For a player who dictated the top of men’s tennis for two decades, this is a symbolic moment, not a verdict on his form. Djokovic has proven before that his ranking and his level of play do not always move together, especially since he stopped chasing the No. 1 spot and began picking tournaments on his own terms. What comes next is September 14, the day the ATP releases its new official list and the day it will finally be clear whether he holds on to No. 11, or whether Tien and Tiafoe push him down even further before then.
