Dispite vax drama, Novak Djokovic dominated 2022

It’s all been coming up Novak Djokovic in the latter parts of 2022. A controversial 2021 followed him into the new year, and disputes about COVID-19 vaccinations saw him miss a few major tournaments.

However, now that COVID-19 is on the back burner, and the Australian government lifted vaccine requirements for people from other countries, a return to Djokovic domination on the court is expected.

His performance at the ATP Finals over the past couple of weeks could be a preview of what is to come in 2023. Novak slayed all in his path to cruise to a massive $4,740,300 in prize money. That is the largest prize for a single tournament in tennis history.

At the ATP Finals, Novak beat the second seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, sixth seed, Andrey Rublev, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev, eighth seed Taylor Fritz and third seed Casper Ruud. Four of the five wins were in straight sets.

Drama ahead of the 2022 Australian Open

The Australian Border Force detained Novak upon arrival in Australia on 5 January 2022. While he received a COVID-19 vaccination exemption from Tennis Australia, the Border Force deemed the exemption insufficient to enter the country, and they cancelled his visa.

Because of his vaccination status, he was not eligible to enter Canada or the USA. That saw him miss the Indian Wells Masters, the Miami Open, the Western and Southern Open, the Canadian Open and the US Open.

While controversies played out in the media, his stats kept on ticking.

Djokovic quietly breaking records

During this year, Djokovic surpassed several records. The most impressive of the bunch include the record of 353 weeks as the ATP no.1 stretch to 373, he became the first player to record 80+ singles wins at all Grand Slams and he surpassed the record of 28 Grand Slam first pace seedings to 31.

Another record Novak surpassed this year was wins over players ranked in the top 10. He managed to stretch the total from 229 to 240.

Although he missed out on two Grand Slam events and a few other tournaments on the ATP Tour, he did get through the year with the best win/lose record. Despite a bumpy 2022, Djoko ended up playing the same amount of matches at Rafael Nadal.

Of the 47 matches, Nadal won 39, which sees his win percentage at 83. Djokovic won 41 of his matches, which translates into a win percentage of 87,2.

The Current world number one, Carlos Alcaraz won 82.1% of his matches in 2022. However, he played 20 matches more than the two veterans.