In beating Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (5), Novak Djokovic has secured a seventh career year-end number one finish, setting yet another ATP all-time record. He’s well clear of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer — both at five — and has edged ahead of Pete Sampras as well, with six. This achievement is more impressive than the numbers alone tell you: Djokovic has had to duel with Federer, Nadal, and Andy Murray for most of his career, meaning nothing has come easy, even when he was at his mind-shattering best.

Djokovic has amassed the greatest career in the history of men’s tennis. He’s won 20 majors — the same as Federer and Nadal, but Djokovic has had to beat tougher competition, and is the only member of the renowned trio with two or more titles at each major. He’s spent 345 weeks at number one. He’s won every Masters 1000 tournament at least twice; his two great rivals are title-less at more than one of these tournaments. Djokovic has beaten Federer and Nadal more times than they’ve beaten him. He’s won four majors in a row; he’s had years of dominance (2011, 2015, and to a lesser but more surreal extent 2021) that defy belief. There’s nothing one could reasonably expect him to do on a tennis court that he hasn’t done already.

Djokovic has built a career on polishing his game until it’s so bright his opponents are blinded when they play him. Their already shaky weaknesses become gaping holes in their tennis; even their strengths are badgered into errors as Djokovic flies around the court, getting almost everything back and getting close enough to the stuff he doesn’t get back that it makes his opponents think anyway. When he is on, his game is perfect. There is nothing he can be reliably attacked with. At times, his opponents will struggle just to win points against him, like Hurkacz in the second set today.

Yet it’s not Djokovic’s one-sided blowouts that have produced the most awe-inspiring moments, it’s the epic battles that he’s won by the barest of margins. Djokovic has stared into the abyss of physical and mental agony on a tennis court so many times that he can probably call all the many-toothed monsters inside by name. Oh, hello, thigh cramps and butterflies holding tiny spears. Both of you at the same time? It’s been a year or two.

When we think of Djokovic, we think of the 2012 Australian Open final, which he won despite being in such obvious pain that he crumpled to the ground after a torturous 31-shot rally he lost to Nadal. We think of the 2011 U.S. Open semifinal, where Djokovic saved a pair of match points with a returning masterclass, the first return so devastating that it left a lasting mark on Federer’s psyche, a mark that helped Djokovic edge yet another desperately close match, the 2019 Wimbledon final.

Djokovic’s vast experience — of winning from all kinds of deficits, of blowing some matches he should have won (though that’s barely happened since 2011) — has created a player who knows all there is to know about tennis. At Wimbledon this year, after beating Denis Shapovalov in a tight three-setter where he could have easily lost any of the three sets (and where most players would have), he said that being in so many tight situations in his career has given him confidence for future situations, and that he gets more sure of himself after every one of them.

This mentality is what everyone craves, but no one can put into practice. Even Nadal, who for years was the gold standard of pressure-proof play in the biggest of moments, saw his aging body start to overwhelm his confidence not too long ago. Djokovic seems to become more mentally unshakeable even as he wades deeper into his 30s. If parts of his game are getting worse, it’s basically impossible to tell, since he can still produce his best tennis on the pivotal points, and nothing’s worsened significantly enough that it stops him from winning the big tournaments.

One of the few records Djokovic doesn’t hold for himself is the number of Masters 1000 titles won — Nadal is even with him there, at 36. Djokovic can forge ahead tomorrow if he can knock off Daniil Medvedev in the final of the Paris Masters, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what will happen in that match. Djokovic-Medvedev is an intriguing rivalry. They’ve clearly been the two best players in the world on hard court for the entirety of 2021. It’s a matchup that is impossible for either player to win easily if their opponent is on their game. The recent trend has been either one fails to show up and the other romps, or that both show up and a titanic struggle ensues, like their ATP Cup match at the start of last year.

Djokovic-Medvedev at its best is like two boulders slamming into each other again and again, breaking off chips that start tiny and get progressively bigger, until one rock is reduced to a pile of rubble. Their games are so technically perfect that there’s no easy route to win points, and nothing one or the other can count on to break down, either. Sometimes, a 20-shot lungbuster rally is the only way to get through a point. Drop shots can start to feel like less of a tactical maneuver and more of a desperate effort to kill a point, the result be damned.

Part of me thinks Djokovic will show up — he said “the job is not done” after today’s semifinal win, but he also said he would play the U.S. Open final like it was the last match of his career, and Medvedev destroyed him. Djokovic taps out of matches sometimes when the stakes are low or if he’s tired. Since he’s claimed the year-end number one ranking already, it’s possible he’ll trade blows with Medvedev for a few games tomorrow and decide you know, I’m not feeling a marathon match today.

(Djokovic is so dangerous that even when he’s playing terribly, there’s usually a sense of this is going to turn around eventually, right? When Djokovic was down two sets and two breaks in the U.S. Open final, I guarantee there were people out there who still thought he would win the match.)

#Djokovic: I enjoyed my time off, I wasn't concerned (about coming back). I spent time at my tennis centre in Serbia, I wasn't bored without tennis, but I love competing. It is a huge relief to reach YE no. 1, but know the job is not done. Hopefully I'll have a great match tmrow.

— Saša Ozmo (@ozmo_sasa) November 6, 2021

When Hurkacz’s volley on match point of the semifinal today was confirmed by HawkEye to be wide of the sideline, Djokovic raised his arms in victory and stayed stock-still for a few seconds. It was as if he had frozen into a statue, that with the breaking of Sampras’s record of six year-end #1 finishes, the figure of Djokovic was to stay on the Paris center court forever as a memorial to the achievement.

But Djokovic is still moving, and though he might not be willing to feel the hellish pain of a marathon match that he’s endured so many times tomorrow, we won’t know for sure until Djokovic himself decides what to do mid-match. The chance that he’ll commit to the possibility of another classic battle of attrition is there, and that’s enough.