Novak Djokovic's wife Jelena expressed delight as the Serb extended his reign as the World No. 1 reign despite his 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters semifinal exit this week.
Djokovic's run in his first clay-court tournament of the season ended in the semifinals, where he was defeated by eighth-seed Casper Ruud 4-6, 6-1, 4-6. The Serb, who was the top seed, defeated Roman Safiullin, Lorenzo Musetti, and 11th seed Alex de Minaur en route to the last four.
On her Instagram story on Saturday, April 13, Jelena shared a screenshot of a tweet revealing that it is now mathematically impossible for the Serb to lose his No. 1 ranking before May 20, 2024, which extends his reign as a top-ranked player for a staggering 425 weeks.
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"Amazing," Jelena captioned her Instagram story.
As of now, Djokovic currently has 9,725 points and the closest competitors trailing behind him are Jannik Sinner, with 8,710 points, and Carlos Alcaraz, with 8,645 points. They will need to consistently perform well and earn 1000+ points in the upcoming tournaments to close the gap.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion has held the top spot in the ATP rankings for a record 420 weeks followed by Roger Federer with 310 weeks, and Pete Sampras with 286 weeks.
Looking ahead, the tennis calendar post Monte-Carlo Masters is packed with major clay-court events like the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, leading up to the grand stage of the French Open.
Novak Djokovic's wife Jelena talks about not fitting into the stereotype of a tennis WAG
Novak Djokovic and wife Jelena, who have known each other since childhood, dated for eight years before getting engaged in Monte Carlo in 2013. They tied the knot in July 2014 in Sveti Stefan, Montenegro, and now have two children: six-year-old Tara and nine-year-old Stefan.
In a 2020 interview with Graham Bensinger, Jelena shared her experiences with the prevailing stereotype of athletes’ wives, which she felt she didn’t conform to, leading to judgment.
"Basically, as a woman, you are not allowed to speak up a lot, you are not allowed to show up a lot," Jelena said (at 7:30). "There is this stereotype about who is the wife of an athlete, how she should look like, how she should behave, and I don't fit very well into that stereotype. I am glad I don't because I don't need to. But it was hard because I was judged because of it."
The 37-year-old admitted trying to conform by discussing topics outside her interest but realized the importance of staying true to herself and challenging stereotypes.
"I was trying to conform at first because I was meant to be interested in fashion, I was meant to be interested in looks, you know, different kinds of things and that's all fun, but it just doesn't inspire me," Jelena Djokovic said (at 7:54).
"So, I had to invent my place and that was a competition like, 'I'm gonna prove you know.' I'm gonna prove something that we can be at other things than just a girlfriend or just a wife," she continued.
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