Daniil Medvedev to overtake Novak Djokovic and become tennis' new world No. 1

By Matias Grez, CNN

Updated 1014 GMT (1814 HKT) February 25, 2022

Russia's Daniil Medvedev will be crowned the new men's world No. 1 on Monday.

(CNN)After almost 18 years, men's tennis will finally have a new world No. 1.

For the first time since Andy Roddick held top spot in 2004, Monday will mark the first time a player outside of the 'Big Four' of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic will be ranked first in the world.Russia's Daniil Medvedev will be crowned the new No. 1 after Djokovic's surprise defeat to world No. 123 Jiri Vesely in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday.Novak Djokovic willing to skip French Open and Wimbledon over his vaccine stance, he tells BBC in on-camera interviewDjokovic holds the all-time record for weeks spent at No. 1 with 361, having surpassed Federer's previous record of 310 back in March 2021.However, Djokovic's decision not to get vaccinated for Covid-19 and the subsequent decision to revoke his visa in Australia cost him the 2,000 ranking points he earned as last year's Australian Open champion.Read MoreAfter winning last year's US Open — beating Djokovic in the final — Medvedev continued his rise by reaching this year's Australian Open final, where he lost in an epic five-set clash to Nadal.Rafael Nadal: What's next for tennis' 'Big Three' after record-breaking grand slam victory?The pair will face off in a rematch on Saturday at the Mexican Open semifinals after Nadal beat America's Tommy Paul and Medvedev beat Germany's Peter Gojowczyk.Nadal's victory means the Spaniard extends his career-best winning start to the season to 13 matches.It seems unlikely that Djokovic, who only played his first match of 2022 on Monday, will be