Djokovic surpasses Federer for most weeks at No. 1
Hundreds of Novak Djokovic supporters staged boisterous street celebrations in Belgrade after the Serb became the sole record-holder for most weeks as the men’s world No. 1 on Monday.
Djokovic topped the ATP rankings for a combined 311 weeks, surpassing Roger Federer’s tally of 310.
Djokovic and his family joined fireworks in front of their restaurant in the new part of Belgrade.
Main buildings downtown in the Serbian capital were lit with his portrait, including a light show displaying the best moments of his career.
Jubilant fans chanted “Nolo, Nolo,” waved Serbian flags, and kept no social distancing despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Djokovic addressed the crowd, saying, “Today is a special day for myself, my family as well as Serbia. Thank you for the success which is not only mine but of the whole nation.”
The ATP rankings date to 1973, and Djokovic first topped them in July 2011. He’s in his fifth stint at the top.
His Australian Open victory last month earned him an 18th Grand Slam singles trophy, two less than his greatest rivals Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Elsewhere: Recent Montpellier finalist Roberto Bautista Agut overcame 22 aces from
Reilly Opelka to beat the American 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Qatar Open . ... Surprise Australian Open semifinalist
Aslan Karatsev had a relaxed return to the court with a 6-4, 6-0 win against Qatari player Mubarak Shannan Zayid.
ETC.
NFL: The Dallas Cowboys are retaining quarterback Dak Prescott, and this time it’s for more than a one-year arrangement. The two sides agreed to a four-year contract worth about $160 million. Prescott would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency, but the Cowboys could have kept him off the free agent market by utilizing the franchise player tag, which would have resulted in a oneyear deal worth $37.7 million. Prescott played last season under a oneyear franchise player deal worth $31.4 million and would have been entitled to a 20% raise if he had been tagged again . ... The Jets put the franchise tag on Marcus Maye. The franchise for a safety next season projects to be around $10-11 million. Maye was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent and hit the open market if he hadn’t been tagged, after making about $6.5 million in his four-year rookie deal . ... Washington placed the franchise tag on Brandon Scherff,
tagging the standout guard for a second consecutive year in the aftermath of his first All-Pro season. Scherff stands to make almost $18 million. The deadline for NFL teams to use the franchise tag is Tuesday . ... The Seattle Seahawks released veteran defensive end Carlos Dunlap after the sides could not agree on a contract extension.
College basketball:
Gonzaga received 61 of 63 first-place votes from a media panel in The Associated Press men’s poll as the Zags attempt to become the first wire-to-wire
No. 1 since Kentucky in 2014-15. Baylor had two first-place votes and moved back into the No. 2 slot after dropping a spot last week . ... Creighton University announced that men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott was being reinstated, four days after he was suspended for likening his players to being on a “plantation.” McDermott, 56, shared his comments last week in a statement in which he apologized for “the pain that my words have caused.” He said that after a tough loss to Xavier he told his players: “Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation.”
NHL: Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and several other Washington Captals took exception to the seven-game suspensionteammate Tom Wilson received for boarding Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo on Friday. Ovechkin called the rules that led to the suspension “kind of a joke.” T.J. Oshie said he has gotten “hit like that all the time.” Lars Eller said the supplemental discipline Wilson received “doesn't really add up, no.” They also believe Wilson's hit would not have drawn as much attention if Carlo had not been injured and if not for Wilson's reputation around the league. Carlo, whose head smashed into the glass, was hospitalized overnight.
Soccer: Inter Milan moved six points clear at the top of Serie A after a 1-0 win at home against high-scoring Atalanta on a goal by Milan Skriniar . ... Chelsea held onto fourth place in the English Premier League after beating Everton 2-0.
is still waiting to make his Grapefruit League debut after a delayed start to spring training and a recent false positive test for COVID-19 and the Marlins have yet to set a firm timeline for when he could take the mound in real game action.
The starting pitcher did, however, take a significant step in that direction Sunday.
“Sixto threw a ’pen [Sunday],” manager Don Mattingly said, “a really good ’pen.”
The bullpen session sets Sanchez up to face live hitting soon. Mattingly said the next steps for the highly regarded righthander will be to see how he responds after the bullpen session and then throw a live bullpen in the coming days.
“Tentatively,” Mattingly said, “the next step would be a live and then, tentatively obviously, going from there.”
With no firm timeline in place right now, it’s not yet clear whether Sanchez will be ready when the season opens next month.
There’s no set number of starts Mattingly is targeting for Sanchez before Opening Day, which is
April 1. Sanchez’s readiness will be determined by whether he is fully built up to give the Marlins a full effort in his first start of the regular season.
Miami wants to get Sanchez a five-inning start — or a 75- or 80-pitch outing — in the spring to have him ready for the regular season. If he isn’t fully built up in time, Sanchez could remain in Jupiter to continue training and join the Marlins a bit later in April.
Miami won’t rush Sanchez to have him ready for the first week of the season, though.
After Sanchez’s rocky start to the spring, the Marlins want to let him
work with his own timeline. The organization has always taken this approach with Sanchez, anyway.
“With Six, we’ve kind of always rode that wave of making sure he’s solid and then moving to the next step,” Mattingly said.
“We don’t want to just schedule all the way out and push him to our schedule. We want to make sure the schedule’s fitting him and where he’s at.”
Sanchez’s spring began with a delay. A visa issue held up the 22-year-old’s as he returned to Florida from the Dominican Republic, and he didn’t arrive in Palm Beach County
until five days after pitchers and catchers began workouts. He threw two bullpen sessions the last two weeks before he returned a false positive COVID test result as part of MLB’s regular virus screening process. He missed a few days of camp before rejoining the team Saturday and Mattingly said the hiccup “did set his program back just a little bit.”
Sanchez, who’s among the preseason favorites for an MLB Rookie of the
Year Award this year, made his major-league debut last season and made nine starts, including two in the postseason. He posted a 3.64 ERA
with 41 strikes and 16 walks in 47 innings.
MARTE, DICKERSON AND LEADOFF SPOT
Miami’s lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday was a preview of what the Marlins may trot out when the season begins in April — at least when they face left-handed pitchers.
Outfielder Starling Marte was in the lead-off spot for Miami with lefthanded starting pitcher Kwang-hyun Kim on the mound for the Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium, and Mattingly dropped outfielder Corey Dickerson to the No. 2 spot in the order.
Until Monday, Dickerson exclusively hit in the leadoff spot when Miami used its likely regular starting lineup. Mattingly said he likes the idea of Marte as the leadoff hitter against lefties, “and maybe either way.”
Part of Mattingly’s calculus will involve how he distributes his left-handed hitters throughout the lineup.
“Depending on who we hit down in the order, you want to make sure that — if you’re going to bring a lefty against Corey — there’s righties on both sides of that,” Mattingly said, “so you kind of want to not encourage the lefty and not bunch those guys.”
There’s a good chance Miami will only have two lefties in its regular lineup — Dickerson and eitherDiaz or Chisholm, whichever starts at second base — but Mattingly wants to keep his options open, which means giving Dickerson some time in the
No. 2 spot.
“I want to just kind of mess around with that spot for Corey in the two and [Marte has] led off a lot of his career,” he said, “so I’m going to look at that a little bit.”