Djokovic Advances In Belgrade, Ties Vilas For 5th On Open Era Wins List

Novak Djokovic set a milestone Tuesday at his own event in Belgrade. The 18-time Slam winner topped world No. 253 and lucky loser Mats Moraing 6-2, 7-6(4) for his 951st career win which matched him with Guillermo Vilas on the Open Era leaderboard.

“With this win I managed to put my name in another history record book,” Djokovic said. “Obviously being in the same conversation with Vilas and the legends and greats of our game, it makes me really fulfilled and very joyful.”

ATP OPEN ERA MATCH WIN LEADERS
1 Jimmy Connors 1,274
2 Roger Federer 1,243
3 Ivan Lendl 1,068
4 Rafael Nadal 1,022
5 Novak Djokovic 951
5 Guillermo Vilas 951

In the match, Djokovic failed to serve out the second but managed to control the tiebreak against the 28 year old from Germany.

“I was twice a break up in the second set so I maybe could have finished out the job earlier, but credit to him for fighting, for playing really well, for playing very courageous, very bold tennis,” added Djokovic.

Djokovic, who turned 34 over the weekend, will now meet Federico Coria on Thursday. Coria is the younger brother of former Top 10 Guillermo Coria. Djokovic last played a Coria back in 2006 Amersfoort.