The undefeated Serbian is 24-0 with titles also at the Australian Open, Dubai and Indian Wells.
Djokovic’s 2011 start is the best start to an ATP Tour season since Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia began 1986 25-0.
The following year the WTA Tour's Steffi Graf of Germany began 1987 45-0.
Djokovic also topped Nadal in the final of the ATP Tour’s previous tour event in late March at Indian Wells, California.
Head to head Nadal leads Djokovic 16-9. However Djokovic has won five of the duos last seven meetings dating back to 2009.
And although Djokovic holds the best ATP record by far for this year, Nadal remains atop the ATP Tour rankings for now due in part to his 2010 victories at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
For rankings purposes, the ATP Tour uses a player’s tournament results during the immediate past fifty-two weeks.
Nadal lost his first four ATP Tour tournaments this year and last year. But last year after losing in his first four events, Nadal won four clay court tournaments in a row: Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid and the French Open. Then only a few weeks later, the Spaniard took his second career Wimbledon singles title.
Saturday in the women’s final, the 21 year old Azarenka stopped the 16th seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia 6-1, 6-4. Sharapova, struggling with errors and her serve, fell behind 1-6, 0-4.
After cutting her errors and holding serve for the first time of the match, the Russian looked destined for a third set before she would turn in several additional costly doublefaults and baseline errors.
Azarenka in the end proved too steady from the baseline for a still recovering Sharapova. The Russian’s tennis has not yet been the same since a shoulder surgery in October of 2008.
