Djokovic ties Federer in weeks at No. 1; Gauff up to No. 38
Novak Djokovic is gaining on Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the Grand Slam standings, and he’s already caught Federer in another significant statistic: As of Monday, Djokovic has been No. 1 in the ATP rankings for a total of 310 weeks.
That equals Federer’s career record for most time spent atop the rankings. And no matter what happens over the next week, Djokovic is assured of breaking Federer’s mark on March 8.
Pete Sampras is third on the list, with 286 weeks.
Djokovic’s Australian Open championship last month gave the 33-yearold from Serbia 18 Grand Slam singles trophies. Only Federer and Nadal, each with 20, have more.
Getting to that milestone for No. 1 weeks is “going to be a relief for me, because I’m going to focus all my attention on Slams, mostly,” Djokovic said after beating Daniil Medvedev in the final at Melbourne Park. “When you are going for No. 1 rankings, you kind of have to be playing the entire season, and you have to be playing well; you have to play all the tournaments. My goals will adapt and will shift a little bit.”
There was no movement in the ATP’s Top 10 on Monday.
No. 6 Baylor 64, Texas 57: NaLyssa Smith scored 23 points and No. 6 Baylor used a dominant third quarter to build a lead, then had to fight off a late Texas rally to earn a 64-57 victory Monday night that locked up sole possession of the Big 12 title for the Lady Bears.
Baylor had already clinched a least a share of the program’s 12th league championship and 11th in a row, and the victory locked out any chance West Virginia had of staking a claim to the crown.
Smith scored eight in the third quarter when Baylor broke open what had a been a close but sloppy game in a rematch of a 25-point Lady Bears win earlier this season. The Lady Bears stretched the lead to as many as 18 points before Texas rallied midway through the fourth quarter, when Baylor piled up foul trouble.
Smith made two 3-pointers in the fourth, the second one giving the Lady Bears a 60-47 lead with just under 3 minutes left.
Baylor (20-2, 15-1) has won 10 in a row over Texas and 25 of the last 26 meetings. Joanne Allen-Taylor scored 15 points to lead Texas (16-8, 10-7).
No. 1 UConn 63, Marquette 53: Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead top-ranked UConn past Marquette 63-53 in the regularseason finale for both teams.
Aaliyah Edwards added 16 points and eight rebounds for UConn (21-1, 18-0 Big East), which ended the regular season without a conference loss for the eighth straight year.
Camryn Taylor scored 19 points to lead Marquette (17-5, 14-4), which lost for the first time in six games and will be the No. 2 seed in this weekend’s Big East Tournament.
Lauren Van Kleunen had 12 points and Jordan King added 11 for the Golden Eagles, who were blown out by the Huskies 87-58 last month at home.
UConn’s Paige Bueckers had 30 points in that game. The star freshman, who came in averaging 20 points, scored 13 on Monday.
Butler 86, No. 25 DePaul 81: Upe Atosu scored 22 points and Butler (3-16, 3-15 Big East) had its best offense game of the season to shock host DePaul (14-7, 11-5) to wrap up the regular season.
It was Butler’s first-ever win DePaul in 21 meetings.
The Bulldogs shot a season-high 54% (33 of 61), had their third-most 3pointers and second-best percent by going 10 of 22 (45.5%) and went 10 of 11 from the foul line (90.9%) for their best outing except for a 6-for-6 game.
Butler’s season shooting percentages coming into the game were 35.3% overall, 31.2% behind the arc and 71.5% from the line.
The loss put the Blue Demons’ No. 3 seed in the Big East Conference tournament in jeopardy pending the outcome of other games on Monday. Butler is the No. 10 seed and plays Friday.
Okako Adika added 17 points for Butler, which averaged just 55.5 points a game, although this was its thirdstraight game with at least 68. Tenley Dowell scored 13 points, Genesis Parker 11 and Nyamer Diew 10 with eight rebounds.
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