6 interesting facts from the 2020 ATP season: Federer had the same number of titles at Djokovic's present age, and more

The 2020 ATP season featured the inaugural ATP Cup, where the Novak Djokovic-led Serbia beat the Rafael Nadal-led Spain in the final.

Andrey Rublev meanwhile became the first player since Dominic Hrbaty in 2004 to win two titles before the Australian Open, triumphing in Doha and a brand new tournament in Adelaide. And in an all-French Auckland final, Ugo Humbert became the newest player to win a title on the ATP tour.

At the Australian Open, Roger Federer escaped a pair of five-setters - against John Millman and Tennys Sandgren - to join Marin Cilic (32) as the active players with the most fifth-set wins. Djokovic beat Federer for the fourth time in an Australian Open semifinal and then recovered from 2 sets to 1 down against Dominic Thiem to extend his perfect record in Australian Open finals to 8-0.

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Czech Jiri Vesely won in Pune to win his first singles title in five years (2015 Auckland), while Frenchman Gael Monfils won multiple titles in his career for the very first time - going back-to-back in Montpellier and Rotterdam.

On that note, let us have a look at six interesting facts from the nascent 2020 ATP season:

#1 Federer is the first player to win singles matches in 4 different decades

Federer (left)

With a straight-sets win over American Steve Johnson in the first round of the 2020 Australian Open, Federer became the first player to win matches in four different decades.

Federer, who made his tour debut in 1998, won 15 matches in the 90s, 663 matches in the 2000s, 558 matches in the 2010s and has so far won five matches in the 2020s.

The 38-year-old fell in the first round in both his Grand Slam matches in the 1990s, losing to Patrick Rafter at 1999 Roland Garros and to Jiri Novak at 1999 Wimbledon. In the process, Federer narrowly missed out on becoming the only player to win Grand Slam matches in four different decades.

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#2 Federer overtakes Jimmy Connors for the most matches at a Grand Slam tournament

Federer (right) saved 7 match points against Tennys Sandren in the Australian Open quarterfinals

By beating Marton Fucsovics in a four-set fourth round match at the 2020 Australian Open, Federer went past Jimmy Connors' record (115 matches) for most matches at a Grand Slam tournament.

In his record-breaking 116th match at a Grand Slam tournament, Federer saved match points against American Tennys Sandgren, before losing to Novak Djokovic for the fourth time in an Australian Open semifinal. The win over Sandgren meant that Federer broke his own record (101 at Wimbledon) for most match wins at a Grand Slam tournament.

Federer and Connors are the only players to have played over 100 matches at a Grand Slam tournament. While Federer has played 117 matches at the Australian Open (102-15), 114 at Wimbledon (101-14) and 103 at the US Open (89-14), Connors played 115 matches at the US Open (98-17) and 102 matches at Wimbledon (84-18).

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#3 Djokovic is the first player to win Slams in 3 different decades

Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open

Djokovic's triumph at the 2020 Australian Open enabled the Serb to break a tie with 13 other players and become the first to win a Grand Slam title in three different decades.

In the present decade, Federer and Nadal are the only players with a chance of joining Djokovic in this rarefied club. The two all-time Grand Slam title leaders have each won Grand Slam titles in the 2000s (Federer - 15, Nadal - 6) and 2010s (Federer - 5, Nadal - 13).

By winning a record-extending 8th Australian Open title, Djokovic joined Nadal (12 at Roland Garros) and Federer (8 at Wimbledon) as the only players in the Open Era to have won 8 or more titles at a Major.

Among all players who have won the Australian Open, Djokovic's win-loss record (74-7; 90.24%) is only surpassed by Andre Agassi (48-5; 90.56%).

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#4 Federer had the same number of titles at Djokovic's present age

Novak Djokovic at the 2020 Australian Open

The 32-year-old Djokovic won his 17th Grand Slam singles title and 78th career singles title at the 2020 Australian Open.

At Djokovic's present age of 32 years and 8 months, Federer (April 2014) also had 17 Grand Slam and 78 career singles titles. Federer won his 17th Grand Slam title at 2012 Wimbledon and his 78th career singles title at 2014 Dubai.

Nadal, at Djokovic's present age, had 80 singles titles.

Incredibly, at Nadal's present age of 33 years and 8 months, Federer also had the same number of singles titles as the Spaniard (84) does. The 20-time Grand Slam champion won his 84th singles title at 2015 Dubai.

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#5 Gael Monfils (10-21) has the worst finals record among players with at least 31 singles finals

Gael Monfils successfully defends his Rotterdam title

Gael Monfils' title match at 2020 Montpellier meant that the mercurial Frenchman reached a tournament final for a 16th consecutive season. Only Federer (20), Connors (19), and Agassi (18) have reached title matches in more consecutive seasons than Monfils.

Following his victory in Montpellier, which marked his 9th singles title, Monfils successfully defended his title in Rotterdam to win multiple singles titles in a year for the first time in his career.

However, Monfils, who now has a 10-21 finals record in singles, still has the worst success rate in tournament finals among players to have played at least 31 finals.

Best success rate among players to have played at least 31 singles finals

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#6 Only 6 players have lost more singles finals than Auger-Aliassime without winning a title

Felix Auger-Aliassime (left) poses with 2020 Rotterdam winner Gael Monfils

Felix Auger-Aliassime reached his fourth career singles final, and second at an ATP 500 tournament, at the 2020 Rotterdam Open.

However, the young Canadian lost to defending champion Gael Monfils to fall to 0-4 in career singles finals. In the process, Auger-Aliassime joined a group of 16 players, which includes a two-time Grand Slam finalist - Steve Denton (1981-82 Australian Open) - to have lost at least 4 singles finals without winning one.

Players with at least 4 single's finals not to have won a title

However, considering the talent that he possesses, the Canadian teenager is not expected to be in this list for too long.

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