Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has become the fifth player to claim 1000 tour-level matches after his victory over Casper Ruud in the semifinals of the Italian Open.
Djokovic has joined the club along with Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, Ivan Lendl and Rafael Nadal.
Welcome to the 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ wins club!
Djokovic is the fifth man in the Open Era to achieve this milestone 👏@DjokerNole | @InteBNLdItalia | #IBI22 pic.twitter.com/lQwIVN7Dpo
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 14, 2022
Organizers honored the 34-year-old player with a cake decorated with the number 1000 on it.
He won his first ATP Tour match back in 2004. He lost the game to Filippo Volandri by 7-6(5), 6-1. However, he left a good impression of himself.
“I am blessed and privileged to have that many victories,” Djokovic said post-match.
“Seeing Roger and Rafa celebrate these milestones in the last couple of years, I was looking forward to getting to that milestone myself.
“It is a long time since I won my first match on Tour. Hopefully, I can keep going and there are many more victories to come,” he added.
The world number one beat Federer by 1,000 victories, but it took two more games than Nadal and was also slower than Connors and Lendl.
Despite having to fight hard at times against Norwegian Ruud, Djokovic won 6-4 6-3.
On Sunday, he will compete in the final against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas for his first trophy of the season.
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