Legendary tennis star Pete Sampras has recently called Novak Djokovic the greatest of all time mainly due to his prolonged consistency and a string of remarkable achievements. The Serbian tennis star recently broke Sampras’ record as he entered his seventh year as the No. 1 World ranking.
Djokovic was recently presented with the year-end trophy at Torino where he is currently featuring in the ATP Finals. With this, he went past his childhood hero Pete Sampras who had the record of ending six years with the No. 1 rankings.
The Serb has also equalled his rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with 20 Grand Slam, it will be interesting to see what happens in Melbourne in the upcoming Australian Open next year. Despite showing great consistency and giving his all in the Grand Slam Djokovic also give great importance to the Year-end trophy as it proves great consistency.
Recently Pete Sampras was in conversation with ATP’s Greg Garber as they spoke about Djokovic’s achievements. Sampras highlighted how having this kind of consistency in an era with two other greats is very difficult.
“Seven years, for him, I’m sure he sees it as a bonus to all the Majors that he’s won,” Pete Sampras said. “But I think he’ll appreciate it more as he gets older. He did it at a time where he dominated two of the greats, in Roger and Rafa, and he handled the next generation of players very well – all at the same time.”
Pete Sampras went on to highlight Djokovic’s prolonged consistency and hence tagged him with the GOAT status. “I do think what Novak’s done over the past 10 years, winning the Majors, being consistent, finishing No. 1 for seven years, to me it’s a clear sign that he is the greatest of all time,” Sampras said.
The 14-time Grand Slam winner ran out of adjectives to describe Djokovic’s glittering career filled with accolades and achievements. Sampras highlights how Djokovic has always looked to change with the change in trends and has always looked to improve himself which Sampras feels is the reason for his greatness.
“What Novak’s done over the past 10 years – I could give you all the adjectives, I mean, I don’t know what to say,” Sampras said. “He’s willing to change, he’s willing to learn about himself. He’s always looking to get better.”
The Serb started the ATP Finals with a dominating win over Casper Ruud and will now face Russia star Andrey Rublev in the next game as he looks to bag the Nitto ATP Finals title.
