Alex de Minaur on Wednesday defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets at the United Cup. The Australian won the match in straight sets, 6-4 6-4, to sentence the World No.1 to his first official ATP match loss of the 2024 season. The World No.12 produced one of the best performances of his career, which helped in the host nation knocking Djokovic and Serbia out of the tournament in the quarterfinals. This defeat also meant that Novak Djokovic’s incredible winning run of 43 matches on Australian soil has came to an end.
Djokovic was struggling with a wrist injury throughout the tournament and needed some medical attention against de Minaur as well. The Serbian managed to save 3 match points before eventually losing to the rising Aussie star. This was Djokovic’s first defeat in Australia since losing to Korea’s Hyeon Chung at the Australian Open in 2018. This winning run included four Australian Open titles for the Serbian.
First win over a World No. 1 @alexdeminaur LOVES playing in Australia!#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/oijuLbpJxI
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 3, 2024
Novak Djokovic has made it a habit of going on long winning runs. The great Roger Federer was the last player to break the Serbian’s longest unbeaten run. Co-incidentally, Djokovic was on a 43-match winning streak across tournaments in the 2011 season too when Federer defeated him at the French Open 2011 semifinals.
The Serbian’s unbeaten run from 2010-11 was the fifth-longest winning streak in men’s singles tennis history. Roger Federer was 30 years of age at the time and it would go down as one of the Swiss superstar’s finest career achievements, since Novak Djokovic looked very invincible at the time.
Stan Wawrinka is another player who has ended a huge Novak Djokovic hot-streak. Interestingly, Wawrinka was also aged 30 when he sentenced Djokovic to his first defeat after 30 matches across tournaments in the 2015 season and that came in the French Open final match. The Serbian had won all the Grand Slams that year except for the French Open.
Now, Alex de Minaur has not only joined an elite club of sorts. The Australian has now become the youngest player to end any Novak Djokovic winning streak of more than 30 matches, at the age of 24.
Alex de Minaur just broke one of the many Djokovic winning streaks
Novak Djokovic is known for his monster mentality. The Serbian has a never-give-up attitude and the hunger to succeed. The 24 time Grand Slam champion has registered some of the best winning runs in tennis history.
Besides the streaks mentioned above, the Serbian got onto a 22-match winning streak across ATP tournaments before getting beaten by Alexander Zverev in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Novak Djokovic had a good unbeaten run in 2023 as well. The Serbian was dominant after his Wimbledon 2023 final defeat to Carlos Alcaraz and went on a 19-match winning streak. However, this run was ended by World No.4 Jannik Sinner at the ATP Finals 2023 round robin stage. Djokovic’s winning runs included titles at the Cincinnati Masters, US Open and the Paris Masters.
