Novak Djokovic guaranteed to overtake Roger Federer''s record

Novak Djokovic has long been playing catch-up to both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. While he is still a couple of Grand Slam titles behind, he is now guaranteed to break one of Federer's other records. This week, Djokovic has equalled the Swiss star's streak of 310 weeks as world number one and is also guaranteed to surpass that record and extend it even further in the coming weeks.

The Serbian star is not that far behind in the Grand Slam battle either. He fell behind last year as Nadal joined Federer with 20 major titles. However, his victory at the Australian Open last month brought Djokovic within striking distance with 18 Grand Slam titles of his own.

It also marked his 9th title in Melbourne, an event that he has been dominating in the past decade.

"After achieving the historic number one for the longest weeks at number one, it's going to be a relief for me because I'm going to focus all my attention on slams mostly," he said, as quoted by the BBC.

That comes as a warning for his rivals, who need to step it up if they want to stay ahead. Nadal participated in Australia but only made it to the quarter-finals. Federer meanwhile, has not won a Grand Slam since the 2018 Australian Open. Incidentally, he lost to Djokovic in his last Grand Slam finals appearance at Wimbledon in 2019. He has been recovering from a knee surgery for the better part of the past year, and it remains to be seen if he will return for the rest of the Grand Slams in 2021.

Djokovic suffered an abdominal injury in Australia, but that did not stop him from claiming the title. Meanwhile, both Nadal and Federer have constantly been sidelined by injuries in the past couple of years. With the Serb still in top form, it may also just be a matter of time before he catches up on the record for most number of Grand Slam trophies.