Novak Djokovic has been sensationally snubbed by Gustavo Kuerten in the Brazilian’s list of the six greatest players of all time.
Djokovic is considered by many to be the greatest male player in the history of tennis, with an array of records to his name.
No man can match his tally of 24 Grand Slam singles titles or 428 weeks as ATP world No 1, while he is one of just three men to win all four singles majors and Olympic singles gold.
Djokovic is also the only man to win all four Grand Slam events on at least three occasions, while he holds a record 40 Masters 1000 titles and 99 ATP career singles titles in total.
However, former world No 1 Kuerten has controversially left Djokovic out of his personal ranking of the greatest players of all time.
Asked to pick the five best male players, the Brazilian selected Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Roger Federer.
The three-time French Open champion then added Rafael Nadal as an honorary sixth pick but did not include Djokovic.
Justifying his decision, Kuerten said he picked the likes of Borg, McEnroe, Agassi, and Sampras ahead of Djokovic for a range of reasons.
“Why? Because of my origins,” said Kuerten in quotes reported by the Daily Express.
“My brother with a poster of Borg and me with a poster of McEnroe. I can speak today and people will listen to me thanks to these two players.
“Sampras was from another galaxy. Agassi was a more provocative type who went beyond tennis and reached people.”
Djokovic is currently in action at the Shanghai Masters, where he is looking to claim a record-extending 41st Masters 1000 title, and fifth Shanghai title.
The fourth seed is yet to drop a set in his first Shanghai campaign since 2019, starting with a narrow victory over Alex Michelsen – fending off the American in two tiebreaks.
The Serbian then picked up comfortable victories over 28th seed Flavio Cobolli and Roman Safiullin to reach the last eight, where he will face rising star Jakub Mensik.
Djokovic is the highest-ranked player left in the bottom half of the draw after second seed Alexander Zverev’s shock loss to David Goffin on Wednesday