Djokovic Ties Vilas On Open Era Wins List
Novak Djokovic has inched his way up the record books once more. With his 6-2, 7-6(4) win over Mats Moraing on Tuesday at the Belgrade Open, Djokovic improved to 951 tour-level wins, tying him with Guillermo Vilas for the fifth-most wins in the Open Era.
“I’m thankful for that,” Djokovic said in press. “Obviously that also inspires me more to keep going. It’s not my main priority, but it comes as a consequence of all the quality work and all the results that I have [had] over the years. I’ll try to reach even the further places on the ranking ahead of me with wins in the years to come.”
Getting his 951th win wasn’t easy as the 6’6″ Moraing threw everything he had at the Serbian with big serves and even bigger returns.
“He didn’t give me much rhythm,” Djokovic said. “It’s difficult tactically to be clear with yourself in every moment, what you want to do against players like this, when they’re going for all or nothing.”
If he beats Federico Coria in the quarter-finals in their first ATP Head2Head meeting, Djokovic will move to standalone fifth place. He still has a way to go to catch Rafael Nadal, who is in fourth place with 1,022. Though the World No. 1 has never faced 29-year-old Coria before, he played his older brother Guillermo Coria four times (2-2).
“How he walks, he reminds me a lot of his older brother on the court,” Djokovic said of the younger Coria. “He’s a fighter like his brother and doesn’t doesn’t give up, not even one point. He’s got that spirit of fighting and making sure that the player beats him rather than he beats himself. And he loves to play on clay, this is his preferred surface.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Coria scored a 6-3, 6-2 win over Pablo Cuevas earlier on Tuesday. Djokovic will be prepared for the Argentine’s best. As the World No. 253-ranked Moraing showed on Tuesday, players aren’t afraid to go for it against Djokovic.
“He will not have much to lose,” Djokovic said. “I’m sure he’s really motivated to play his best tennis and he’s probably going to [get] some really good advice from his older brother. But I’m looking forward to that. It’s a great encounter for me and some really good clay-court tennis coming up.”