It takes immense talent and effort to acquire top-ranking positions in professional tennis. The list of professional players is uncountable but reaching the top and maintaining it for a very long period of time is back-breaking and onerous but fruitful and worthwhile at the same time. The tennis players who reached such milestones are legends themselves and the greatest in their field. Many such legendary players have stayed at the top for the most weeks at no.1 and this is a list of the top 5 male tennis players with the most weeks at no.1 in tennis.
The ATP ranked number one player in the world Novak Djokovic has been holding the position for 378 weeks now. Djokovic broke the record of Rodger Federer being the no. 1 for 310 weeks on 8 March 2021 and became the male tennis player with the most weeks at the no. 1 position. He secured the number one position for the first time on 4th July 2011. Novak stayed at the top as the no. 1, 6 times- 53 weeks (from 4 July 2011 to 8 July 2012), 48 weeks (from 5 November 2012 to 6 October 2013), 122 weeks (from 7 July 2014 to 6 November 2016), 52 weeks (from 5 November 2018 to 3 November 2019), and 40 weeks (from 3 February 2020 to 5 April 2021).
One of the most inspirational and exciting parts of his professional career is that he was ranked no. 22 on 21st May 2018. He took only 6 months to return to the number one position once again on 5th November 2018.
Before Djokovic came to the top, Federer ruled the tennis world by being the most weeks at no.1 until 7 March 2021. He held the no. 1 position for 310 weeks in the open era. Previously he broke the record of Pete Sampras in 2012. Sampras held the number one position for 286 weeks and Federer broke it in 2012 and became the number one. He achieved this feat 5 times. He held the record of being number one for 237 consecutive weeks from 2nd February 2004 to 17th August 2008. Federer also suppressed the record of Jimmy Connors for 160 weeks.
The next tennis player with 286 weeks as the no. 1 is Pete Sampras. He reached the prestigious position of no. 1 in the world in 1993. These 286 weeks of his reign included an Open-Era record of six consecutive years in number 1 rankings from 1993 to 1998. He was nicknamed 'Pistol Pete' because of his accurate serves. Pete is one of the only two players with the most year in number one rankings. He achieved the feat 6 times along with Novak Djokovic.
The former Czech-American tennis player held the world no. 1 rank for 270 weeks consecutively. He achieved this feat on 28 February 1983. In the 80s, he was the only tennis player to spend most weeks being the world's no. 1 ATP-ranked player.
On 29 July 1974, Jimmy Connors became the player with the most weeks at the no. 1 position in tennis. He ruled the world of tennis till 22nd August 1977 and completed being at the no. 1 position for 268 weeks. Also, he is the first male tennis player to secure the no. 1 position for more than 200 weeks. In the 70s, he was the only tennis player to spend most weeks being the world's no. 1 ATP-ranked player.
