By U.B. Acharya

In athletics, particularly in running speed that counts, in high jump and pole vault it is the height and in shot put and javelin throw, distance is the criteria for records. Again, in swimming it is the speed that counts.

In tennis, there could be several records that can be achieved and one of them is the number of tour titles a player has won. In this aspect, there is a bit of a confusion. This is mainly because prior to 1968, there were two tennis circuits, namely, amateur circuit and professional circuit. And International Tennis Federation (ITF) recognised only the results of amateur circuit and neglected the performance of professional tournaments.

From 1968 onwards, the two circuits merged and professionals were allowed to participate in all tournaments including Grand Slam events. In 1970, Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was formed and ATP then started a detailed statistics of individual performance. For tour titles, ATP recognises winners of Major titles (that is Grand Slam events), Olympics gold medal, year ending ATP Finals, Masters 1000, ATP 500 and ATP 250 tournaments only.

In this connection, we should look into the case of great Rod Laver whose career saddled between the two eras. Rod Laver, as an amateur between 1956 and 1962 won six Major titles and several dozens of State and county level tournaments. While the Major victories were recognised, ATP did not recognise his other tournaments. Further, between 1963 and 1967, he played as a professional and none of his victories during that period have been recognised. From 1970 onwards, that is during ATP regime, his victories have been recognised. Net result is that though Rod can show 198 victory trophies in his cabinet, ATP data shows that he has won 72 titles only! Yet, when he retired in 1979, his tally of 72 titles was an ATP record at that time.

Subsequently, in 1980s both Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl won several Major and other tournaments and by 1983, Lendl amassed 94 titles, a record at that time. Not to be out done, Connors not only matched this record the same year but also continued his pursuit and by 1989 increased it to 109 titles which is a record till today.

In the first two decades of this century three new champions emerged and they started piling up ATP tour titles routinely. Firstly, it was Roger Federer who kept on winning against every other player and at the time of his retirement in 2022, had won 103 titles which is the second highest number of titles won by any player. For Connors and Federer, once they stopped winning Majors, they concentrated on ATP 250 tournaments and won some half a dozen such tournaments mainly to increase their tally of tour titles.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were chasing Federer all the time with Nadal well ahead of Djokovic. By end 2021, Nadal had 88 titles and Djokovic had won 86. By the end of 2022, again Nadal was leading with 92 titles and Djokovic was just one behind at 91. But in 2023, while Nadal was winless, Djokovic won seven titles and ended with 98 titles.

For his spectacular performance in 2023 (that is record breaking three Majors making a total of 24, record extending two Masters 1000, his 40th such title and again record breaking seventh year ending ATP title), Djokovic was awarded the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year in April last year. He thus equalled Federer’s record of five such awards.

Tom Brady, the famous American former quarterback footballer who presented the award to Djokovic, said that he was not done yet! Sure enough, by winning the Olympics gold in 2024, Djokovic increased his tour title tally to 99. Now on 24th May 2025, he completed his century of titles by winning the Geneva Open having won his first ATP title way back in 2006 in Belgium.

Let me now dig a bit deeper into these numbers. Of the six criteria, four of them namely, Majors, Olympics gold, ATP year ending tournament and Masters 1000 are considered as prestigious. Connors has won 28 such titles (25.69%) and for Lendl it is 37 (39.36%). While Federer has 54 prestigious titles (52.43%), Nadal has a better tally of 59 (64.13%). In the case of Djokovic, his tally is 72 (72.00%) proving that Djokovic has won more prestigious tournaments than the others.

Whether Djokovic will match Federer’s and Connors’ record, only time will tell. Unfortunately, time is running out for him because of his age and lack of motivation!