In Dubai, Novak Djokovic is returning at one of his most successful tournaments

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will make his return to competition this coming week in Dubai, and if history is anything to go by, it should be a strong starting point to the season for the 20-time Grand Slam winner—he’s a five-time champion at the ATP 500 event in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2020.

“I always love Dubai. I love coming here,” Djokovic told reporters during a visit to the Expo 2020 Dubai ahead of the tournament. “I’ve had plenty of tennis success here and I’m excited to go out on the tennis court next Monday.

“I miss tennis, honestly, after everything that has happened in the previous couple of months.”

Dubai is actually one of nine tour-level events that Djokovic has won five or more times in his career, a list that includes two of the four Grand Slams, the season-ending ATP Finals and four of the nine Masters 1000 events.

TOURNAMENTS DJOKOVIC HAS WON 5+ TIMES (tour-level)
9: Australian Open (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021)
6: Wimbledon (2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021)
6: Miami (2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016)
6: Paris (2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2021)
6: Beijing (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
5: ATP Finals (2008, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
5: Indian Wells (2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016)
5: Rome (2008, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2020)
5: Dubai (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2020)

All nine of the above tournaments are at the ATP 500 level or higher.

One scary stat for anyone facing Djokovic in the early rounds of Dubai this year: he’s reached the quarterfinals or better in all 11 of his previous appearances at the event.

In addition to his five titles, his other six appearances have produced one final (2015), three more semifinals (2008, 2012, 2014) and two more quarterfinals (2007, 2016).

He’s 41-6 in his career at the event, and five of the six losses came against players who were, had been or would become No. 1 (three losses to Roger Federer and one loss each to Andy Roddick and Andy Murray). The only other loss came via retirement—after dropping the first set against Feliciano Lopez in the 2016 quarterfinals, he had to retire from the match due to an eye problem.

Djokovic will also be going for his 15th career ATP 500-level title in Dubai this week. Other than his five titles in Dubai, he’s also won Beijing six times (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) and Vienna (2007), Basel (2009) and Tokyo (2019) once each.