Who is a giant and who is not is also a question of perspective.

From a purely external point of view, the tall guys outnumbered the best tennis men at the end of the year.

Five of the eight participants are over 1.90 meters in length, the quintet is led at the current ATP Finals in Turin by Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, each with 1.98 meters.

Thomas Klemm

Sports editor.

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Novak Djokovic is ten centimeters less, and yet it would be presumptuous if the others looked down on him.

Because the Serb is in a class of its own, the greatest among all the Lulatschen.

It may even be the greatest tennis has ever produced.

At least if you take the numbers as a yardstick and not the popularity.

Novak Djokovic has won 20 Grand Slam titles, which puts him on a par with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

However, a lot can still be expected of him in the four most important tennis tournaments, unlike the two rivals, who are not only partly significantly older, but also suffer from ailments more often.

If you look at other statistics, the Serb is even more the measure of all things.

14th tournament in 2021 for Djokovic

At the beginning of this month he won his 37th title at a Masters tournament in Paris, relegating Nadal (36) to second place. He will end a tennis year at the top of the world rankings for the seventh time in 2021, and he may also become the record winner of the ATP Finals at the end of this week in Turin. With a triumph he would catch up with the six-time title holder Federer.

To put it bluntly, you could advertise the ATP Finals, which will be held in Turin for the first time, with the slogan: Djokovic and the seven dwarfs. After all, the Serb has won twenty times as many Grand Slam titles as all other finalists combined. Only Medvedev was able to win one of the four coveted titles when he defeated Djokovic in the final at the US Open last September and his dream of four Grand Slam triumphs within one calendar year at the last minute.

After his painful defeat, the world number one had withdrawn from the professional tour for weeks. Djokovic only returned in Paris, played brilliantly as usual and defeated Medvedev in the final. Because he stepped down, he was going fresher in the unofficial ATP World Championship than in previous years, said Djokovic before his first appearance this Monday afternoon (2 p.m. on Sky) against the Norwegian Casper Ruud.

The Serb is only playing his 14th tournament of the year and thus half of what his Russian group opponent Andrei Rublev, for example, has completed.

But apart from once in Monte Carlo, he always reached at least the semi-finals and therefore has 54 matches under his belt.

“The appearances, especially at the Grand Slam tournaments, were exhausting - physically, mentally and emotionally,” said Djokovic in Turin.

This was also due to the pressure that the Serb had put on himself to do sports history.