Novak Djokovic

The winner of 20 majors has yet to confirm to the Australian Open organisers whether he has received the vaccination for Covid-19 or not, a prerequisite for competing at the Melbourne Park where he is the defending champion. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley has rejected reports which suggest that a medical exemption could be granted to Djokovic, the nine-time Australian Open champion.

Djokovic holds the record for staying at the top for the maximum number of weeks and is now said to be eyeing the record set by Germany's women's tennis legend Steffi who stayed at the top for 377 weeks as per WTA rankings.  Djokovic has finished year-end No. 1 for the record-breaking seventh time. He has moved past another legend Pete Sampras who held the record for six times.

The Australian Open commences on January 17 and Djokovic, who finished a record seventh year as world No. 1, has not revealed his Covid-19 vaccination status. The winner of 20 majors is just one major title away from breaking the tie with Swiss ace Roger Federer and Spaniard Rafael Nadal. "He (Djokovic) has not shared his status with anyone," Tiley told SEN's Whateley on Friday.

The German, who beat Djokovic in the 2018 season finale championship match in London, played bravely and hit with depth in the crucial moments against the Serbian, who was crowned the world No.1 for a record seventh year recently. Zverev saved a set point in the first set and closed the net effectively throughout to advance after two hours and 29 minutes in an thrilling match.

"I am happy that such a big name of the tour (Bob Green, co-founder of the ATP tour) said that the profit distribution was 50:50 between tournaments and players. Nowadays it's much less, players get 25-30 percent and at Grand Slam, it's only 11-12 percent," Djokovic said. "It's a very sensitive topic in our sport and I have never hesitated to talk about it because I think it's very important."

World No. 1 Djokovic took a tumble on a breakpoint in the first game, rallied from a breakdown, found his rhythm from the baseline to fire 23 winners to secure victory after 90 minutes. Ruud converted the lone breakpoint in the first set as he took Djokovic to the tiebreak.

Djokovic, who has already secured a record-breaking seventh year-end No. 1 finish in the ATP Rankings en route to his sixth Paris Masters title recently, has his sights set on levelling Swiss ace Roger Federer's record six ATP Finals titles. The Serbian has clinched the season finale five times -- 2008 Shanghai, and 2012-2015 in London -- and would be looking to go into the new season on the high of winning a record-equalling sixth ATP Finals title.

The tournament, scheduled to run from November 14 to 21 at the Pala Alpitour here, will see the 'Red Group' being led by defending champion from Russia Daniil Medvedev. The group also has Germany's Alexander Zverev, Italian Matteo Berrettini and Poland's Hubert Hurkacz.

Djokovic, who had broken the tie with American legend Pete Sampras for the most number of year-end world No.1 finishes on the ATP rankings on Saturday (November 6), tweeted images of him holding the Paris Masters trophy (designed like a tree) inside a glitzy room shaped like a hexagon.

Djokovic, who had rallied to defeat Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in the Paris Masters semifinals to clinch a record seventh year-end world No.1 finish on Saturday (November 6), avenged his US Open final loss to Medvedev for a record-breaking 37th ATP Masters 1000 crown in 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was the 14th time this season that Djokovic rallied to victory from a set down to capture his sixth Paris Masters title. It was also the first Paris Masters final to feature the top-two players on the ATP Rankings since 1990.