Rafeal Nadal won the Australian Open on Sunday, giving him his 21st grand slam title. That is the most for any mens tennis player in the history of the game with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer right behind him at 20. Nadal has always seemed to be the last guy when ranking that big three. Federer is usually 1 and Djokovic usually falls at 2. However, with this accomplishment by Nadal, there is an easy argument to be made that he is the greatest tennis player to ever play the game!
By the way, I would like to give credit to Daniil Medvedev who nearly won this 5 hour match. Medvedev only has more championships to win in the future! It was just unfortunate for him that he had to go against arguably the best tennis player ever!
This Big 3 has made Mens tennis one sports to watch for around the last 20 years. To me, I always have considered Roger Federer the best tennis player of all time. He had the most Grand Slam wins of all time and to me, was the best of the big three. Then I second guessed myself once Novak Djokovic also made history last season and he also tied the Grand Slam record. Nadal was no where in that conversation despite being an amazing player. But after I saw Nadal come back from so many injuries the last couple of seasons and come back from down 2 sets in the championship to break the Grand Slam record at 35 years old, I have to consider moving Nadal to that #1 spot. Now, ESPN wrote an article saying, is Nadal being #1 a lock and that is definitely no. I understand he could be the best ever but there is still so much to break down.
Nadal has a list of great accomplishments in his career. Let me list them:
13 French Open titles, 105-3 record in the French Open (97.2% win percentage) – leads Big 3
4 US Open titles
2 Australian Open titles
2 Wimbeldon titles
Here are Djokovic and Federer’s accomplishments
Djokovic:
9 Australian Open titles – leads Big 3
3 US Open titles
6 Wimbledon titles
2 French Open titles
Federer:
6 Australian Open titles
5 US Open titles – leads Big 3
8 Wimbeldon titles – leads Big 3
1 French Open title
So the point is, if Nadal’s not playing on clay, then Nadal is by far the worst. Federer has 19 titles in the Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon combined. Djokovic has 18 in these tournaments combined. Nadal has 8. Can you get dominated that much in 3 of the tournaments and still be considered the greatest tennis player ever? Well, here’s the thing. Nadal has 13 French Open titles. Federer and Djokovic have a combined 3 titles in the French Open. So you can make the same argument about the French Open to those 2. However, the French Open is 25% of the 4 major tournaments. The tournaments Nadal is getting crushed in takes up 75% of the major 4 tournaments.
Final conclusion. Rafeal Nadal is a great tennis player and has now probably the most impressive record in tennis history. The great thing for him is that he has a great chance to hold that record. Novak Djokovic will not be allowed to participate in the French Open coming up. And even if he does, the “King of Clay” healthy doesn’t lose the French Open! But if No-vax never gets the vaccine, he may never play a tournament again. And Federer is on his final stage of his career at this point. So, Nadal could hold this record for a while! I personally think Roger Federer is the best tennis player of all time. But Nadal is very close, especially since he holds arguably the best record any mens tennis player could ever hold. Nadal is a special tennis player!
Chase Coburn
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chase@chasessportsnews.com
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