Golden era of Tennis and dominance of big 3!
Just came across this interesting chart of Grand Slam winners (Men) between 2005 and 2015.
Roger Federer -17, Rafael Nadal -14 and Novak Djokovic-12; having three players with 12+ Grand Slam kitty, Tennis can not have superior golden era anytime soon. Actually it is an era of big four but having only 2 Grand Slams in pocket, Andy Murray is far from matching up with them.
Numbers are always fascinating but when prime of more than one all time greats run parallel, they might be projecting false projections some times.
Let's break 2003-2016 into phases.
2003-2005
This was an era undoubtedly belonged to Federer. He raked 6 Grands Slams during this period, 3 Wimbledon, 2 US Opens and 1 Australian Open. His counterpart Nadal was yet to make impact and won 1 French Open, first of his illustrative tally of 9!
Can not much interpreted about rivalries and comparisons when single man is winning everything!
2006-2008
Federer was in his Prime, won 7 slam titles of total of 12. Rafa won 4, one of that was Wimbledon 2008. That epic 5 hour Wimbledon 2008 final is spacial for many reasons, It gave first true competitor first time since Federer stamped his dominance. Between 2003 and 2008 Federer won 5 US Opens(2004-2008) and 5 Wimbledon(2003-2007) on trot, that speaks about dominance player can have! Djokovic burst on scene with 2008 Australian Open, but would get hailed as semi-finals player for few more years!
2009-2012
This is truly an era of big three! Federer unlike pre 2008, had two great competitors and eventually his Slam tally started dwindling. He could manage just 4 titles! This could be hailed as true prime of Rafael Nadal as he was in peak of physical powers and won 6 majors including 3 French Opens. Djoko managed his hands on 4, out of which 2 are his favorite Australian Open.
2013-2016
It's interesting that Roger Federer has won absolutely nothing during this period! His last slam is 2012 Wimbledon. At that time it was debated how far he would go after 17 slams, but sadly he is nowhere after 4 years! Nadal has 3, cut 2 FO's down and he also has nothing much. Contrastingly, Djokovic who is in supreme physical and mental power after 2014, has 7 titles!
Clearly this era belongs to him! Seems like decline of Federer and Nadal has helped him great!
Concluding down above, it gets very difficult to figure out who is best. As Nadal and Djoko have luxury of some years and nobody knows how far they will go. By year by year analysis 2003-2007 belongs to Federer and 2014-2016 totally belongs to Djoko. Nobody has complete dominance in between.
Nadal whose prime co-incised with Fedex and later Djoko, never had free run apart from FO and yet managed 14!
By numbers, I think Djoko might fly past Nadal as don't think he(Nadal) will gain his once inhuman fitness again.
If we consider quality of opponents each one of these three faced during different phases of their career, Rafa and FedEx looks superior to Djoko. As when all of them were at their prime, Djoko had good number of semis to his name!
Considering this and distribution of titles won, Federer remains best for me (7 W, 5 USO, 4 AO and 1 FO) . Nadal-second (9 FO, 2 W, 2 USO, 1 AO) and Djokovic third (6 AUO, 3 W, 2 USO).
Personal rivalries and dominance over certain player among-st them can be discussed to great length but, that will make this write up quite long!
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