Novak Djokovic reaches the next milestone in his magnificent career. At the ATP event in Geneva, he achieves his 100th tournament win with a hard-fought victory in the final against Hubert Hurkacz from Poland.
24.05.2025, 18:56
24.05.2025, 19:27
SDA
For years, Djokovic has made no secret of how important it is for him to write tennis history, set new records and immortalize himself at the top of the statistics. The Serbian has consistently pursued his goals - and achieved practically all of them. He is the player with the most tournament wins at Grand Slam level. He has already triumphed 24 times in total at the four major events. He has topped the world rankings for 428 weeks, another previously unattained mark.
Last August at the Games in Paris, Djokovic finally completed his palmarès with the long-awaited Olympic victory. It was the crowning glory for him - and he made it abundantly clear what winning gold at Roland Garros meant to him. "This is the greatest success of my career," said Djokovic after beating Spain's Carlos Alcaraz in the final. He even put this gold on top of his two dozen tournament victories at Grand Slam level.
The third in the group
And now this anniversary, this round number of tournaments won on the tour. Djokovic is the third player to make it into the hundred club. Only one duo has ever been more successful, the American Jimmy Connors with 109 and Roger Federer with 103 tournament wins.
Djokovic had to be patient until he finally made it into the history books again - a good nine and a half months, as Djokovic had not won a tournament since his Olympic victory. The closest he came in this period was last September and in March of this year. At the category 1000 tournaments in Shanghai and Miami, he reached the finals for the last time, losing to world number one Jannik Sinner and the young Czech Jakub Mensik respectively.
So far this year has been characterized by a thigh injury, which forced Djokovic to retire in the semi-final against the German Alexander Zverev at the Australian Open, and by several surprising defeats against significantly lower-ranked opponents. In Brisbane, the Serb was beaten by the American Reilly Opelka, who was ranked 293rd in the world at the time. The four-week forced break after the bitter elimination in Melbourne was followed by further early failures against outsiders. In Doha in the first round, the Italian Matteo Berrettini was too strong, in Indian Wells it was the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
Djokovic also failed to find his feet on clay for the time being. In Monte Carlo he was beaten by Chile's Alejandro Tabilo and in Madrid by Berrettini's compatriot Matteo Arnaldi. Djokovic got his revenge for that defeat in the quarter-finals in Geneva on Thursday.
The signs in Geneva
The victory against Arnaldi was one of several signs that Djokovic sent out in Geneva - and which gave him back some confidence for a successful trip to the south-west of Paris, where the French Open begins on Sunday at Roland Garros. The Serb again performed largely in line with his own expectations. He played for long stretches on the Parc des Eaux-Vives as if he wanted to make up for the previous difficult months with vehemence.
Djokovic, who has been 38 since Thursday, took the final step towards the "round" in a battle of attrition. He defeated Hurkacz 5:7, 7:6 (7:2), 7:6 (7:2) in three hours and five minutes and showed that the fighting element in his game is back. In the third set, Djokovic was behind after losing the first game and serve, but equalized at 4:4 and finally also clearly held the upper hand in the second tiebreak, thus achieving what he had not managed in nine tournaments after winning Olympic gold. The eighth victory in the eighth duel with Hurkacz is one for the history books.
