The King of Clay has extended his lead at the top with another milestone with regard to popularity on social media platform Instagram.

Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal (Images via IMAGO)

Former World No. 1 Rafael Nadal continues to break records despite being out of action. The Spaniard became the first tennis player to hit the 21M million mark for followers on Instagram.

The Spaniard has long been leading the list of followers on the social media platform. But he has now achieved a new landmark. No other player has touched the 20 million mark yet showing the big difference in popularity of the 22-time Grand Slam title winner.

Coincidentally, he was the first male tennis player to win the 21st Grand Slam singles title and now he is the first to reach the followers milestone. Second to him is 23-time singles Major winner Serena Williams. The American has 17.2 million followers on the platform.

Capping off the top three is Novak Djokovic with 14.4 million followers. Surprisingly, both Williams and Nole are more active than Nadal. But the King of Clay still retains the position at the top. In just men’s tennis players, Roger Federer is the third most followed player with 12.1 Instagram followers.

The Top-10 list of most followed tennis players on Instagram

While Federer occupied the third spot for just male tennis players, he is in reality the fifth most followed player overall. Indian tennis great Sania Mirza takes the fourth spot in the overall list with 13 million followers on her account.
Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams (via Imago)
Five-time Grand Slam singles title winner Maria Sharapova takes the sixth spot on the list with 4.6 million followers. The Russian is closely tailed by young gun Carlos Alcaraz who has 4.5 million followers. Aussie mercurial Nick Kyrgios grabs the eighth spot on the list with 4.2 followers on the social media platform.

The ninth spot is captured by four-time Grand Slam singles winner Naomi Osaka with 2.7 million followers. Jannik Sinner caps off the top ten with 2.3 million followers on his account.

Player
Followers (in millions)

Rafael Nadal
21

Serena Williams
17.2

Novak Djokovic

Sania Mirza
13

Roger Federer
12.1

Maria Sharapova
4.6

Carlos Alcaraz
4.5

Nick Kyrgios
4.2

Naomi Osaka
2.7

Jannik Sinner
2.3