“On the way to the final of this prestigious competition, you demonstrated the highest skills and perseverance in reaching your goals and in the decisive match you behaved in a determined and concentrated manner, not leaving a chance to a strong and renowned opponent” . So last September the President of Russia Vladimir Putin congratulated compatriot Daniil Medvedev on the victory in the US Open final against Novak Djokovic. Today Putin definitely had other things to think about, but he will certainly be pleased to know that Medvedev has also conquered the throne of world tennis: the defeat of Djokovic in Dubai at the hands of the world No.130, the Czech Jiri Vesely, arrhythmatically promotes Daniil from 2 to 1, regardless of the result he will get in the next match scheduled at the ATP 500 in Acapulco, where he is engaged. An epochal event, in the small history of tennis, because he is the first tennis player not included among the Fab Four – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray – to reach the top of the rankings after 18 years. An era that is closing, perhaps, indeed that will close next Monday when the computer will officially secrete the ranking, even if it was Djokovic’s exclusion from the Australian Open due to his refusal to vaccinate himself against Covid. And last year in Melbourne it was Djokovic himself who won the final against Medvedev – who happens to have the same surname, of Ukrainian origin and also quite widespread, both of the former champion of the 90s, Andrei, and of Dmitri who he was Russian president between 2008 and 2012 (in the four-year period in which Putin was forced by law to interrupt his ‘reign’) and then prime minister from 2012 to 2020.
Daniil, the most continuous and determined of the so-called Next Gen, is the 27th # 1 in the era of computerized rankings (1973), the third Russian to reach the top after Yevgeny Kafelnikov (6 weeks in 1999) and Marat Safin (9 weeks between 2000-01), and the second new king of the charts after Andy Murray since Djokovic first reached the top in July 2011. Thus, for the moment, the (record) number of weeks stands at 361. go to n.1 from the Djoker, of which the last 86 consecutive. But perhaps this time Putin’s congratulations will be slow to arrive, due to “force majeure”.