By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
In the tennis history books, Novak Djokovic passed Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Boris Becker on Sunday.
Djokovic’s 6-3, 6-3 win over Kei Nishikori in the final of the Miami Open earned him $1.03 million in prize money, vaulting him to a career prize money amount of $98,199,548 surpassing Federer’s all-time record of $97,855,881. The win also marked Djokovic’s 28th career title in the tournament status classified as “Masters 1000” – which is just below the Grand Slam tournament level – surpassing Nadal as the all-time leader in that category in men’s tennis. Also, in a curious note, the win was the 714th of Djokovic’s career, one more than his coach, Hall of Famer Boris Becker. The win also was his sixth in Miami, which tied Andre Agassi for the men’s record in Key Biscayne.
“His rivals still have no answers for his sustained dominance” said Chris Fowler on ESPN2.
If not for an eye infection that caused him to retire from his quarterfinal match with Feliciano Lopez in Dubai and Djokovic would be undefeated on the year, but, instead, he has to settle for a 28-1 record for the season following his win over Nishikori.
“I’m obviously very proud of everything I have achieved and cherish every moment on the tennis court,” Djokovic told ESPN2’s Brad Gilbert of his record-breaking statistics achieved with his Miami Open win.
Miami was also the site of Djokovic’s first tournament win at a “Masters 1000” series event in 2007 at the age of 19, a moment that Djokovic said gives him goosebumps every time he steps foot at the Key Biscayne facility. “It opened a lot of doors for me,” Djokovic said to Gilbert of his 2007 win in Miami. “It gave me a lot of belief.”
