After 5th Rome title, Serbia's Djokovic chases remaining Federer's records

REUTERS/Marko Djurica

With his fifth Roma Masters 1000 title, the world #1 tennis player, Serbia's Novak Djokovic passed both Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras in the tennis record books.

He surpassed Sampras for second place in most weeks at No 1 in the world at 287 and closing on Roger Federer who has been #1 at 310.

In the Monday’s final, Djokovic, 33, beat Argentinian Diego Schwartzman, 7-5, 6-3 to win his 36th ATP Masters 1000 title, one more than Nadal who lost to Schwartzman in the quarterfinals.

Djokovic thus became the oldest Foro Italico winner.

 „It was a great week, a very challenging week,“ Djokovic said in his on-court interview. „I don’t think I played my best tennis throughout the entire week, but I think I found my best tennis when I needed it the most in the decisive moments, today, yesterday, practically every match.“

„So that makes me definitely very satisfied and proud that I managed to find that fifth gear when it was most needed. Now we’re turning to Paris. I couldn’t ask for a better tournament here in Rome, another big title and super-pleased with that,“ he added.

Djokovic will hold the No1 position at the ATP list to at least November 9, reaching a total of 293 weeks, lagging 17 weeks behind Federer.

Besides, Djokovic needs three more GS titles to equal Federer’s 20 Slams.

Nadal has won one more than Djokovic, who has recently admitted he wants to catch up with the two remaining Federer’s records.