Djokovic At No. 1
Novak Djokovic finished as the year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings for the fourth time in five years and passed two greats in 2015 in the list of most weeks spent in top spot. The Serbian moved past Rafael Nadal on 13 April with 142 weeks, and John McEnroe on 2 November with 171 weeks for fifth position in the all-time list. Today, he is enjoying his 178th week as the summit of men’s professional tennis behind Jimmy Connors (268 weeks), Ivan Lendl (270 weeks), Pete Sampras (286 weeks) and Roger Federer (302 weeks). Djokovic enters 2016 having been ranked No. 1 for 78 straight weeks – the longest stretch since Federer’s 237 straight weeks in 2004-08.

Federer’s 1,000th Match Win
Federer added another jaw-dropping achievement to his great career on 11 January, in the first week of the 2015 season. By capturing the Brisbane International crown, he became just the third player in the Open Era (since 1968) to notch 1,000 singles match wins. Connors, the all-time record-holder with 1,253 match wins, achieved the feat in early 1985, while Lendl (1,071) brought up the milestone as Basel in October 1992. Federer will begin 2016 just 13 match wins (1,059) away from breaking Lendl’s mark.

Tomas Berdych (25 February, Dubai) and Andy Murray (31 March, Miami) also both recorded the 500th match wins of their careers.

Karlovic Keeps Swinging
As Ivo Karlovic edged closer to Goran Ivanisevic‘s ATP record aces tally (since 1991), the Croatian fired down a new marker of 45 aces in a best-of-three set match on 19 June by beating Berdych in the Gerry Weber Open quarter-finals. It was the fifth time since 1991 that 40 or more aces had been hit in a best-of-three match. Karlovic broke his previous record of 44 aces, hit against Daniel Brands in the Zagreb first round in February 2014. The 6’11” Karlovic finally broke Ivanisevic’s aces record on 8 October at the China Open, when he struck 26 aces – for a career total of 10,247 – past Pablo Cuevas to jump 10 clear of his fellow Croat (10,237 aces).

Doubles Milestones
As Daniel Nestor (999 match wins) stands on the brink of becoming the first doubles player to record 1,000 match wins, 2015 was a significant year for Leander Paes in his 25th season on the ATP World Tour. The Indian celebrated his 700th doubles victory on 27 May and competed with the 100th doubles partner of his career, Marcel Granollers, at Nottingham on 24 June. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan saw their streak of 143 weeks at No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings end on 2 November, when they were replaced by Marcelo Melo.

Finals Club Launched
The ATP World Tour celebrated year-end championship participants from the 1970s at The O2 in London as a new initiative, Finals Club, was launched. Stan Smith, the first singles and doubles (w/Ashe) champion at Tokyo in 1970, and four-time winner Ilie Nastase joined 20 other players in mid November as they reconnected with the sport, their peers, as well as the world’s best players of today.

Grand Slam Anniversaries
ATPWorldTour.com reflected on Arthur Ashe‘s greatest triumph on a tennis court on 5 July, the 40th anniversary of his 1975 Wimbledon final victory over Jimmy Connors. On 11 July 1985, Boris Becker‘s life changed forever as the 17 year old lifted his first Grand Slam trophy at the all England Club. Pete Sampras is still the youngest winner of the US Open, a trophy he first won on 9 September 1990.

When considering the best returners in the annals of the sport, names like Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors and Lleyton Hewitt are quick off the tongue. But there’s a sizeable crop of current stars that are rapidly inserting themselves into the discussion, including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and World No. 2 Andy Murray, long one of the best returners in professional tennis.

Since turning pro a decade ago, Murray has made a living out of neutralising power servers with his athletic return game. So solid is the Scotsman that he regularly ranks among the ATP World Tour’s best on the return charts. In fact, between 2007 and 2015, Murray finished among the top five in first-serve return points won (seven times), second-serve return points won (nine times) and return games won (seven times).

BOLD = career-best, * = ATP World Tour leader

“The return has become a very important part of the game,” said Murray. “Before, when the courts were extremely quick, it was a different game. Guys were holding serve a lot more than they are now. That was a bit because of the surface. I just think that the return is maybe more important than the serve now because of the [slower] surface.”

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