Novak Djokovic had a cracking start to 2020 and went on an insane winning streak. Even now, he’s only lost two matches this year and is cruising to yet another season where he’ll finish as the #1 seed in the world. With this feat, Djokovic is set to overtake Federer and Nadal in a major category and will match Pete Sampras’ record! 

It is pretty simple. Novak Djokovic is currently participating at the Vienna Open 2020 and he just needed two victories to end 2020 as the World No 1. The Serbian has five year-ending No.1 honors to his name, the same as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Jimmy Connors. 

Novak Djokovic has achieved this feat in the past during 2011,2012,2014,2015, and 2018. But now, the 33-year-old just has moved past his great rivals to extend his year-ending World No.1 record to six. 

The 2020 Australian Open champ has returned to the Vienna event for the first time since 2007 and breezed past the first two rounds. He achieved a straight-set victory against compatriot Filip Krajinovic in the first round and repeated the same pattern against Borna Coric in the second round as well.

This sealed the year-end World.1 title for Djokovic for a record-tying sixth time. However, the Djoker has a tough draw at Vienna this time and might face Stefanos Tsitsipas in a potential semi-final clash in his quest to win a fifth ATP title in 2020. 

Can Novak Djokovic overtake Pete Sampras’ record?   

With his second-round victory at Vienna Open, Novak Djokovic will now end 2020 as the #1 seed in the world. This will be the sixth time he’s finishing a calendar year as the top-seeded player, but will it be the last? 

Similar to Djokovic, 14x Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras has also finished a calendar year as the #1 seed six times in his career. In fact, Sampras did it before the Serbian, during the peak of his powers between 1993 and 1998. 

Sampras won a massive 43 titles during this span, out of which 10 are Grand Slam triumphs. The American cemented his name as an all-time great, but Novak Djokovic is threatening to take his throne. 

He recently surpassed Sampras’ record of 286 weeks as World No.1 and is on course to overtake the leader Roger Federer (310) as well. Furthermore, if Novak Djokovic manages to finish yet another year as the #1 seed, he will be the player with the most year-end No.1s, with seven titles to his name. Can the Serb dominate one more year to lead the pack?