Stat of the Day: Novak Djokovic extends Davis Cup singles winning streak to 20 in a row

Just five days after winning his record-extending 24th Grand Slam title at the US Open, Novak Djokovic was back on court in Valencia for Serbia’s Davis Cup Finals tie against Spain, and he kept the wins coming, defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 6-3, 6-4.

And as if everything he did at the US Open weren’t historic enough, his win on Friday was also historic—it was his 20th singles win in a row in Davis Cup, making him just the fifth player in the history of the competition to record a singles winning streak of 20 or more.

LONGEST DAVIS CUP WINNING STREAKS (singles, all-time)
36: Marcos Baghdatis
33: Bjorn Borg
29: Rafael Nadal
22: Boris Becker
20: Novak Djokovic

Djokovic’s last singles loss in Davis Cup came 12 years ago in the 2011 semifinal tie between Serbia and Argentina, when he had to retire against Juan Martin del Potro due to a back injury. He’s 27-1 since the start of 2010, the only loss being that retirement.

He’s now 39-7 overall in his career in Davis Cup singles matches.

Since the tour switched to hard courts after the grass-court season, Djokovic has been unstoppable—he’s now 13-0 since then, capturing his record-extending 39th Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati, his record-extending 24th Grand Slam title at the US Open and now hitting 20 wins in a row in Davis Cup.

Even scarier: Djokovic has now won his last 17 sets in a row, a stretch that started after he dropped the first two sets to countryman Laslo Djere in the third round of the US Open—since then he hasn’t lost a set, battling back to win that one in five sets and all of his other matches since then in straight sets.

It looked like the set streak might come to an end against Davidovich Fokina on Friday as the Spaniard broke in the fourth game of the second set and built a 4-1 lead, but it was not to be as Djokovic won the last five games in a row—and 20 of the last 25 points of the match—to close it out in straight sets.

His victory also clinched the tie for Serbia, after Djere had beaten Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the first match of the day, 6-4, 6-4.