Former world No.4 Tim Henman believes that the level between Novak Djokovic and the rest of the field is ‘very close’.
The world No.1 has dominated men’s tennis in recent time. Djokovic recently claimed his fifth Australian Open title after defeating Andy Murray in the final. The Serbian has now won seven consecutive tournaments and heads the ATP rankings with 16,790 points, 7845 points more than world No.2 Andy Murray. Despite Djokovic’s dominance in recent months, former British No.1 Henman believes that the likes of Murray and Roger Federer can still trouble the Serbian.
“They can definitely challenge. Murray is at highest ranking in his career, he’s number two in the world. He’s playing great tennis,” Henman said in an interview with Reuters
“But obviously Djokovic is playing a little bit better at the moment”.
“Roger was in the final of US Open last year and he was in the final of the Wimbledon last year. Djokovic stopped him in his quest to win more grand slams”. He added.
“They are still very, very close.”
Since Febuary 2015, Djokovic has only lost five matches, three to Federer, one to Murray and one to Stan Wawrinka. The 28-year-old now has a winning head-to-head record against every player ranked in the top 10. Speaking about Djokovic’s recent record, Henman said that other players on the tour need to raise their level.
“The challenge for all those other players is to try and raise their levels and probably hope that Djokovic doesn’t play quite as consistently,” The former world No.4 said.
“There’s no doubt right now that Djokovic is the player to beat.”
Djokovic is scheduled to return to action in two weeks time at the Dubai Tennis Championships. He won the tournament on four previous occasions, with his last triumph occurring in 2013.
Djokovic’s head-to-head record against the top 10 (as at 10/2/16)
No.2 Andy Murray ~ 22-9
No.3 Roger Federer ~ 23-22
No.4 Stan Wawrinka ~ 20-4
No.5 Rafael Nadal ~ 24-23
No.6 David Ferrer ~ 16-5
No.7 Kei Nishikori ~ 6-2
No.8 Tomas Berdych ~ 22-2
No.9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ~ 14-6
No.10 Richard Gasquet ~ 13-1
Total Win- Loss against the current top-10 = 160-74 (68.3% winning rate).
Figures provided by itftennis.com.
