The new threat for Nadal: another hegemonic period for Djokovic?

• Chronicle Djokovic redeems himself against Tsitsipas in his Eden in Melbourne

• The scanner. Maybe they wouldn't have let him come back in another place.

• Reactions "Only my family knows what I have had to go through"

As with

or, as happened not too long ago with

, the magnitude of

's conquests is such that recovering the number 1 in the world remains almost an anecdotal matter.

As is logical, well above the hierarchy established by the ranking is the fact of winning the Australian Open again and leveling again with Nadal in what really counts, the Grand Slam titles.

Beyond the symbolic value of climbing to the top of the world rankings, to the detriment of

, who moves to second place, the truth is that the authority shown by the Serbian in Melbourne and the succession of results since he won his seventh title at Wimbledon invite us to think that he can re-establish a dominance comparable to the one he exercised in other stages of his career.

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Nadal 'vs' Djokovic.

The scenes of the greatest battle in history

• Writing: JAVIER MARTÍNEZ

The scenes of the greatest battle in history

Djokovic, who

, looked at number 1 for the first time on July 4, 2011, after depriving Nadal of it by defeating him in the Wimbledon final.

It was that year, in which he also prevailed in Melbourne and New York, one of the magical periods of his career.

Four courses later, with the so-called

in full swing and

acting as competent fourth man, the Serbian began a streak in which he seemed almost invincible.

He won again in Australia, Wimbledon and the US Open and lost to

in the Roland Garros final after having eliminated Nadal in the quarterfinals, who was going through the worst moment of his career.

Between 2015 and 2016 he achieved seven consecutive victories against the Spaniard, who had to wait until the semifinals of the 2017 Mutua Madrid Open to stop the bleeding.

374th week as number 1

There have been several comings and goings for

, who shortly after came to handle the possibility of leaving tennis.

The shoulder injury that forced him to withdraw when he was losing to

in the Wimbledon quarterfinals marked an unsettling period.

He had lost in the second round of Australia (

) and in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros (

) and could not play the US Open.

Erratic on his return to the slopes, short of motivation, he found a way back by beating Nadal in a very close Wimbledon semifinal in 2018, to later take the title against

.

No one has spent as many weeks as him at number 1. Today he will start the 374th, revitalized by a title he was looking for like no other.

Behind him was the frustration of not being able to complete the Grand Slam in 2021 and the open crisis due to his refusal to get vaccinated against the covid, with which he severely mutilated his calendar.

Firm, extra-motivated and unapproachable in his fetish tournament, he has made it clear that he is back.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• tennis

• Rafael Nadal

• Novak Djokovic