5 records Novak Djokovic can achieve in 2016

Djokovic – on a record breaking spreeNovak Djokovic has had one of the greatest tennis seasons of all time. Just have a look at some of his achievements this year alone:- Won 3 majors in a year for the second time in his career (also accomplished this in 2011)- Reached the finals of all 4 majors this year.- Has a 27-1 win-loss Record in majors this year, equals Federer.- Moved into 7th spot in the all time list of most grand slam titles with 10 titles (5th in the Open Era).- Won an unprecedented 6 ATP Masters 1000 titles this year.- Reached the finals of all 8 Masters 1000 events he participated in.- Reached the finals of 14 consecutive tournaments since the Australian Open in January.- Has a 28-4 record against top 10 players this season, the most wins over the top 10 in a single season in the Open Era.- Has a 78-5 record (94%) this season going into the World Tour Finals.- Has not dropped any points this season. Secured year end No. 1 rank in September itself.With such an impressive year, surely it will be hard to top. But Djokovic seems to be going relentlessly and more and more records are lining up within his sights. Here are 5 records that he is most likely to achieve in the 2016 season.

#1 Career ATP Masters 1000 Sweep

The Serbian is yet to win the Cincinnati Masters; he was runner-up to Roger Federer this year

One of the most unprecedented records that Djokovic can achieve in 2016 has to be the ATP Masters career sweep.

Only the title at the Cincinnati Masters remains unaccomplished amongst the 9 most prestigious events on the ATP World Tour. Closest to Djokovic are his rivals Nadal (who has never won at Paris and Miami) and Federer (never won at Monte Carlo and Rome).

Djokovic has been in the position to achieve this record for three years now, ever since he won at Monte Carlo in 2013. He has done well at Cincinnati as well, reaching the finals 5 times over the years. However, he has been thwarted each and every time by an opponent who has simply been in red-hot form on that Sunday.

Twice, it has been Roger Federer, including earlier this year. In fact, their Cincinnati meeting in 2012 remains the only time in their rivalry that Djokovic has been bageled. In all, Djokovic has been found wanting at the last hurdle in the tournament.

Will it be 6th time lucky for Djokovic in 2016? One would not me remiss to think so. He is the best hard-court player and it’s only a matter of time before he manages to find his footing on the Cincinnati court.

In doing so, he would become the first man in all of tennis history to win at all the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments.

#2 Most Masters 1000 Titles

Djokovic recently took the title at the BNP Paribas Paris Masters

The ATP Masters 1000 – These top level events are almost like mini-Grand Slams. With the exception of the Monte Carlo masters, all of the top players turn up to play at these tournaments. They are the biggest draws outside the 4 majors and have impressive histories and can boast of some of the best matches of all times.

Currently, the record for most titles at these events is held by Rafael Nadal, who has won an impressive 27 times. At the start of 2015, Djokovic was at a distant 20. But he has caught up so fast this year, that he is now just a whisker away from the leader. He won 6 titles this year, from 8 finals, taking his tally to a total of 26. In the process, he leapfrogged Federer into 2nd spot – the Swiss currently has 24.

Apart from the significance of Cincinnati, which will surely be a goal for Djokovic, there is a good chance that it will not be the only Masters title he will win next year. He has been the best hard-court player over the last few years and six out of the nine tournaments are held on that surface. He has also won the clay events plenty of times and that makes him the top gun every where.

With Nadal still to recover to his former best, Djokovic looks well positioned to claim that lead all for himself and perhaps even put some distance between them.

#3 Become the leader in all-time prize money won

Djokovic recently won his first match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London

Djokovic has won a staggering $16,760,145 in 2015, which puts him comfortably at the No. 1 spot in terms of earnings this year. This is a spot Djokovic has consistently occupied since the start of this decade, winning the most prize money in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

He is currently some $6.1 million behind the all-time leader, Roger Federer. But the gap in their earnings this year has been quite significant. Federer won a paltry $6,634,017 this year in comparison.

This puts Djokovic in a good position to wipe out that 6 million deficit and move to the top position in the all-time list of prize money won.

#4 Achieve the best career win percentage in the Open Era

Only two players in the Open Era have a higher win %: Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal

Djokovic has so far won 79* matches this year and faced defeat on just 5 occasions. That makes his win percentage an astronomical 94.04%. Over all, in his career, he has won 683 out of 828 matches played, which gives him a win percentage of 82.49%. That puts him at third in the Open Era behind Bjorn Borg (82.74%) and Rafael Nadal (82.77%).

The complete authority and imperiousness with which Djokovic has played in 2015 suggests that, even if his is to replicate some of his success from this year in 2016, he will overtake Nadal to achieve the highest win percentage in the Open Era.

To run some numbers, if Djokovic plays a similar number of matches (around 80) and is defeated 10 times over the course of the season (he has been defeated only 5 times this year), giving him a seasonal percentage of 87.5%, he would finish the year with 753 wins from 908 matches – a career win percentage of 82.93%.

** With the ATP Masters World Tour Finals currently ongoing, this number will likely increase.

#5 Achieve the Career Golden Slam

Djokovic was routed at the finals of the French Open this year by Stan Wawrinka

There are two major titles missing from the Djokovic cabinet.

The Coupe de Mousquetaires, the French Open trophy, is probably most conspicuous in its absence. The other is an Olympic gold medal.

Djokovic has lost in 3 French Open finals now. Two of them were to Rafael Nadal. It would have been remarkable had he won against Nadal in any of those finals but the loss wouldn’t have hurt as much either. After all, Nadal is the greatest player on clay of all time.

But this year, despite overcoming Nadal (thereby consigning the Spaniard to only his 2nd loss in 11 years at the French Open) and making himself the overwhelming favourite to win the tournament, he found himself without answers to the sizzling form and brilliant strokeplay of Stan Wawrinka.

Winning the French Open, and thereby achieving the career slam, will be the top priority for Novak Djokovic in 2015.

And when he does win it, he can embellish the success a bit more by trying to win an Olympic gold medal when the games come rolling in Rio de Janerio. In doing so, he will become only the third man in the Open Era to achieve this feat and will further cement his spot as one of the best players of the sport.