David Goffin is ending the best season of his career by celebrating his 27th birthday today. The Belgian has managed to establish himself as a key contender on the ATP Tour with the help of a series of milestones achieved in 2017.
To celebrate Goffin’s birthday, here are five records achieved by the 5’11” player this season.
The top 10 breakthrough
On February 20th Goffin broke into the world’s top 10 for the first time in his career. In doing so, he became the first Belgian male to achieve the accolade. The milestone was achieved at the Rotterdam Open with a win over France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the semifinals. Goffin was denied the title in the final by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Goffin joins three other female players from Belgium that have cracked the world’s top 10. Dominique Monami (also known as Dominique Van Roost), Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.
An Historic ATP Finals debut
At the end of the season, Goffin became the first player from his country to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in London. In 2016 he played the tournament as a alternate. During this year’s event, he stunned the field to reach the final before losing to Grigor Dimitrov.
The run to the final moved Goffin to a current ranking best of seventh in the world. Making him the first Belgium player to finish a season inside the top 10 on the ATP Tour.
That Nadal win
In his opening match at the ATP Finals, the 27-year-old stunned Rafael Nadal in three sets. Ending his run of four consecutive losses to world No.1 players. The triumph once again rewrote the record books with Goffin becoming the first Belgian male to defeat a No.1 player on the tour.
“It’s the best win of my career, for sure, to beat Rafa. But, yeah, I saw that he was struggling a little bit with his movement on the court, and his knee was suffering a little bit,” Goffin said following the win.
“It was tough even if he was not moving 100%. He was hitting the ball really hard. It was not easy. It’s never easy to finish a match, to finish a set against him. Even if I lost four match points in the second, I had no regret. I kept going in the third.”
The golden double
Following on from his win over Nadal in London, Goffin stunned Roger Federer in the semifinals. His first ever victory against the Swiss world No.2 on his seventh attempt, fighting back from a set down.
“Words can’t describe how I am feeling,” Goffin told the on-court interviewer Annabel Croft following the win. “So much joy, so much happiness, such a special moment.”
Goffin is only the sixth player to defeat both Nadal and Federer within the same tournament. The other players to achieve the double are Novak Djokovic (five times), Andy Murray (once), Nikolay Davydenko (twice), Juan Martin del Potro (once) and Davis Nalbandian (twice).
The world No.7 also defeated Novak Djokovic earlier in the year at the Monte Carlo Masters. Meaning that Murray is the only member of the big four that he yet to get the better of.
His best-ever season
Goffin closes out the year with a win-loss record of 57-24. Impressively only Nadal has won more matches than him on the tour this season with 67 under his belt. Reaching five ATP Finals, Goffin has won titles in Shenzhen and Tokyo. It was in Tokyo where he won his first ATP 500 trophy.
Against top 10 opponents, he has achieved a career-best record of 7-5.