With the defeat of Novak Djokovic at the hands of Jiri Vesely (Czech, 28 years old and current 123 in the world) at the ATP 500 in Dubai, the top of the ATP world ranking has a new owner: Daniil Medvedev. This way, the Russian became the third player from that country to be number one.
The first of all to achieve it was Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The Sochi-born reached that position on May 3, 1999 and kept it for six weeks, until June 13. In that period he played the Masters 1000 in Rome (third round), St.Polten (semifinalist, fell at the hands of Mariano Zabaleta), Roland Garros (lost in second instance) and Queen’s (eliminated in his debut).
Throughout his career, Kafelnikov managed to win 26 ATP trophiesamong which Roland Garros in 1996 and the Australian Open in 1999 stand out. He also won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The other compatriot of Medvedev to reach number one in the world was Marat Safin. The Moscow native did it on November 20, 2000 and stayed for two weeks. Then, in 2001, he would get back on it for seven more weeks. In his showcase, in addition to achieving this, he also won 15 ATP titles with two Grand Slam trophies as major achievements: US Open 2000 and Australian Open 2005.
