Novak Djokovic: 18 stats for the world No. 1's 18th Grand Slam title

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic snapped Daniil Medvedev’s 20-match winning streak in the Australian Open final on Sunday, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, to not only turn the tables on a dangerous head-to-head—the Russian had won three of their last four meetings—but also to continue building his incredible legacy.

Here are 18 things the Serbian legend achieved with his latest triumph Down Under:

It was his ninth Australian Open title, by far the most for a man in tennis history. He added the 2021 title to previous triumphs in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020. No other man has won more than six, and only one woman has won more than seven: Margaret Court with 11.

It was his 18th Grand Slam title, one step closer to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s record. The other two members of the Big 3 have 20 career Grand Slam titles, the all-time men’s record.

He’s never been this close to the Grand Slam record. He’s never been two majors away, and he’s catching up at a rapid pace—going into 2011 the race was at 16-9-1, and today it’s 20-20-18.

He’s just the fourth player in tennis history to win the same major nine times. Court won 11 Australian Opens, Martina Navratilova won nine Wimbledons and Nadal has 13 French Opens.

He improved to 18-0 once he gets past the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He’s not perfect in quarterfinals in Melbourne, going 9-3, but he’s a flawless 9-0 in semifinals and 9-0 in finals.

He improved to 42-0 as the No. 1 seed at the Australian Open. Djokovic has won the title all six times he’s been the top seed Down Under, in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 and now 2021.

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His 1:53 win over Medvedev was his quickest win in a Grand Slam final… It was 11 minutes faster than his 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 win over Nadal in the 2019 Australian Open final, which lasted 2:04.

… and it came at the end of his toughest road to a Grand Slam final. He had never lost more than four sets en route to a major final in his career, and in Melbourne this year he lost five.

His third-round win over Taylor Fritz was his 30th career five-set win at a major. That ties him with Federer for the all-time record—the Swiss is 30-17 in five-setters at majors, Djokovic 30-9.

He’s won 6 of the last 10 majors. Since midway through the 2018 season, he’s won one US Open (2018), two Wimbledons (2018 and 2019) and three Australian Opens (2019, 2020 and 2021).

He’s won 10 of his last 12 major finals. Midway through 2015, he was 8-8 in major finals, but since then he’s 10-2, only losing at the 2016 US Open (to Stan Wawrinka) and 2020 French Open (to Nadal).

He’s now tied with Nadal for second-most major finals. Federer has the all-time men’s record for most career major finals with 31 (20-11). Djokovic (18-10) and Nadal (20-8) are second with 28.

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He’s now on a 29-match winning streak in Australia. That includes 7-0 to win the 2019 Australian Open, 6-0 at the 2020 ATP Cup, 7-0 to win the 2020 Australian Open, 2-0 at the 2021 ATP Cup and 7-0 to win the 2021 Australian Open. His last loss on the continent came against Hyeon Chung in the fourth round of the 2018 Australian Open on January 22, 2018—over three years and a month ago.

He’s the first player to win 50 matches since the start of 2020. He’s now 50-5 since the start of the 2020 season. Andrey Rublev has the next-most wins (49-11), followed by Medvedev (38-11).

He’s now 220-1 at majors after winning the first two sets. The only loss came to Jurgen Melzer in the 2010 French Open quarterfinals, 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4. The Serb led in that one, 6-3, 6-2, 2-0.

He’s the first man in Australian Open history to three-peat twice. He won three in a row from 2011 to 2013, and did it again from 2019 to 2021—no man has ever three-peated more than once.

It was his sixth Grand Slam title since turning 30. That ties Nadal for most majors for a man over 30 in the Open Era. They’re both tied for second, male or female—Serena Williams leads with 10.

He secured the men’s record for most career weeks at No. 1. Going into the tournament he was guaranteed of tying Federer with his 310th week on March 1st, but now that the results are in, he’ll stay there until at least the week of March 8th, which will be his historic 311th week at the top spot.