The last time the world number one was not the Big Four, do you remember when? Open the ATP's ball king directory, you will find that from February 2004, Federer became the world number one, the big four you sang and I appeared, for 17 years to firmly hold the ball king throne in your hands. Such a reign of terror is frightening, and the momentum of the younger generations has become so pale in the face of the world rankings.
And just this week, new U.S. Open champion Medvedev is expected to become the creator of history again. If he can be crowned in Indian Wells, he will surpass Djokovic to rise to the top of the world in the ATP World Rankings released the week of November 1!
But by the time of the November 8 calculation, Djokovic had to deduct only 400 points from the year-end finals, while Medvedev had to deduct 1,000 points from the Paris Masters and 1,500 points from the year-end finals. So Medvedev can only stay in this position for a week, and Djokovic will complete the counterattack immediately.
In the current ATP singles world rankings, Djokovic continues to lead with 11,633 points, and his total time on the world number one throne has reached a terrifying 341 weeks, with the goal of surpassing Graf's 377 weeks. With three Grand Slam titles in the cycle, his biggest enemy is Medvedev, who sniped at him to complete the annual Grand Slam.
Throughout the history of tennis, only 26 male players have reached the top spot in the world during the Open era, but not everyone can be as stable as Tarzan and stand still on the throne of the king of the ball. There are also a considerable number of "short-lived" ball kings who have not yet tasted what the world's first is, and they are immediately snatched away by others, two of whom are Medvedev's compatriots.
Let's take stock of the men's players in history whose number of weeks in the world's first week is less than 10 weeks, and for Medvedev, their experience has a strong reference value.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > Safine</h1>
Number of first weeks in the world: 9 weeks
In 1997, at the age of 17, Safin officially switched careers, and the following year he stunned the tennis world, beating Agassi and defending champion Kurten in the French Open, letting the world know the Russian rising star.
At the age of 19, Safine won the first ATP singles title and the first Masters title in his career, and then in 2000, Safine ushered in a big explosion, winning two championships in Mallorca and Toronto, and in september, Safin defeated Sampras in three sets in the final, becoming the first Russian male player to win the US Open. At the end of the year, he won three championships in Tashkent, St. Petersburg and Paris, and a list of seven tour singles titles throughout the season, which gave Safin the world number one on November 20, 2000.
But Safine only stayed in the world number one position for two weeks, and in the finals of the Masters at the end of the year, Saffin was defeated by Sampras in the semi-finals, who successfully avenged and helped Brazilian Kurten surpass Safin to become the world number one. Throughout the 2001 season, the rivalry between Saffin and Kurten was the main tone, and Safine briefly returned to the world number one throne twice, but lost in several head-to-head encounters with Kurten, and the final number of weeks stayed at 9 weeks.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > Ferrero</h1>
Ferrero debuted in 1998 and won the 2003 French Open in his career, which was also the peak of Ferrero's form.
In that year's US Open competition, Ferrero continued his previous excellent form, eliminating No. 6 seed Hewitt and No. 1 seed Agassi in a row, although he lost to Roddick in the final and did not win a grand slam again, but his ranking surpassed Agassi to the world first, followed by the runner-up of the Bangkok Tournament and the champion of madrid, allowing Ferrero to consolidate his ranking.
However, his good form came to an abrupt end at the end of the year, and in the year-end finals, Ferrero lost to Nalbandian, Agassi and Federer, suffering a wave of six consecutive defeats. U.S. Open champion Roddick took the opportunity to win the year-end world number one, and Ferrero's number of weeks was fixed at 8 weeks. It is worth mentioning that after Roddick became the world's number one for 13 weeks, he officially entered the era of the Big Four.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > Newcomb</h1>
Number of first weeks in the world: 8 weeks
Born in 1944, Newcombe is one of the few players to have ranked first in the world in both singles and doubles, winning two Australian Open titles, two US Open titles and three Wimbledon titles in his career. In an era when the Davis Cup was considered as important as the Grand Slam trophy, Newcomb helped Australia win five Davis Cup titles, a dazzling feat.
But that era was also an era of pioneering exploration, Newcomb had ascended to the throne as early as 1967, and the ATP points ranking system was only introduced in 1973, so the previous weeks were not counted. And because of his signing with the World Championships at the time, Newcomb was banned from playing at Wimbledon in 1972 by the International Tennis Federation, and he boycotted the tournament the following year, which hindered the continuation of his peak moments. However, he snatched the world number one from Nastasser in 1974 and maintained it for 8 weeks before entering the reign of Connors.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > Kafernikov</h1>
Number of first weeks in the world: 6 weeks
As another predecessor of Medvedev, Kafernikov also ascended to the throne of the world number one. In 1996, he beat Stić in the final of the French Open to become the first Russian to win a Grand Slam title, in addition to winning the men's doubles title of that French Open, becoming the most recent player to win singles and doubles titles in the same Grand Slam competition.
At the turn of the century, Kafernikov ushered in another highlight of his career. In 1999, he won his second Grand Slam title as the 10th seed in the Australian Open final, followed by the Rotterdam title, and in the world rankings in early May of that year, Kafernikov rose to the first place, and for six weeks.
However, after a consecutive round of travel at the end of the season, Kafernikov lost the world number one, and after winning the men's singles gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, Kafernikov began to fade out of the men's singles field. As an amphibian, Kafernikov has excelled in singles, winning 53 singles and doubles titles during his career, and his last Grand Slam trophy was the 2002 French Open doubles title.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="59" > Muster</h1>
Born in 1967, Mr. Münster was the only Austrian player to win a Grand Slam singles title before Thiem and had a whirlwind of clay in the 1990s.
In 1995, Münster had the best year of his career, when he finished on clay with a staggering 65-2 and won his only Grand Slam title at the French Open, beating Zhang Depei and Kafernikov on the way to the final.
In the 1996 season that followed, Muster continued the previous year's strong performances. At the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, he once again reached the semi-finals, and in the world rankings announced in early February, Muster came to the world number one for the first time, although he was surpassed by Sampras after only a week of sitting. However, in the following clay season, Muester won 29 and lost 8, and with a series of championships, he sat on the world number one throne for five weeks in March.
But at that year's French Open, the defending champion Muster failed to reach the quarter-finals, and his dominance on clay began to decline, with Agassi and Sampras quickly overtaking him in the world rankings.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="74" > Rios</h1>
As the former first Chilean tennis player, Rios reached the top ten of the world early and reached the peak of his career in 1998. He first won the Auckland championship, then passed the Australian Open, and finally reached the Grand Slam final for the first and only time in his career, but unfortunately passed the championship. However, he then won two consecutive championships in Indian Wells and Miami, becoming the "Sunshine Double Champion" and successfully ascending to the throne.
However, he quickly lost world number one, and although he then won titles in Rome and Singapore and briefly returned to world number one in August, a series of trips in the second half of the season allowed him to relinquish the throne again. Rios from Chile has a Latin American romance, of course, there are also those unique loose, throughout his career, Rios has been accompanied by controversy, continuous off-court scandals make it difficult for Rios to focus all his energy on the field, which is also regarded by many as an important reason for his early retirement. To date, he remains the only Grand Slam champion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="83" > Moya</h1>
Number of first weeks in the world: 2 weeks
Before becoming Nadal's coach, Moya was also a champion, and in 1998, at the French Open, Moya won his only Grand Slam singles trophy. In March 1999, Moya, who had just finished runner-up in Indian Wells, came to world number one, and he was the first Spanish player in history to achieve this achievement, although he was surpassed by Sampras after only two weeks.
Moya has been battling injuries for the next two years, and before retiring in November 2010, Moya failed to reach a grand slam final again. After ascending to the world number one throne that year, he first withdrew early due to a back injury in the US Open, and only played two games in the following time of that year. Between the 1999 U.S. Open and the beginning of 2000, Moya suffered from stress fractures in her lower back, repeatedly slipped in the world rankings, and did not perform too brightly in the second half of her career.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="92" > Raft</h1>
Number of first weeks in the world: 1 week
There is no shortage of famous players in Australian tennis, and Raft, born in 1972, is one of them. He is famous for his spins and serves, winning consecutive US Open titles in 1997 and 1998.
In the world rankings announced at the end of July 1999, Raft overtook Agassiz to become THE NEW KO World No. 1 when he reached the final in three races, Wimbledon, Montreal and Cincinnati, and won the championship in Indianapolis. But Rafter struggled in the second half of the season, having been overtaken by Sampras after only a week of world number one. He was also the last shocker of the Sampras chaos era.
Raft's experience may be a lesson for Mei Zong, even if he wins a Grand Slam title, it is difficult to dominate the world number one for a long time, especially in the era of the Big Four. If he can't continue his recent strong performance, Medvedev is not impossible to become the next Raft. However, even if this time can only stay on the world's first throne for a week, for Mei Zong, who is only 25 years old, there are still many opportunities to continue to impact this throne in the future, after all, the era of giants has now entered the end, and he is likely to be the one who personally ended this era.