The current era of tennis has given us the greatest of sporting debates: who is the best tennis player of all time? There are solid arguments in favor of Rafael Nadal, as well as what Roger Federer has. But if you look at it from the perspective of what has been achieved in the Grand Slams (the highest category among tournaments), Novak Djokovic is the boss with overwhelming forcefulness.
The magical number 24 came in this concluded edition of the United States Open. Djokovic’s achievement to equal the legendary mark of the Australian Margaret Court in terms of the number of Grand Slams won seemed impossible to achieve. Especially when the Serbian has coincided at the same time with the best tennis players of all time.
Now Novak is two major titles ahead of Rafael Nadal, who is experiencing his own battle to be able to return to competition before hanging up his racket permanently. The Serbian, with his victory over the Russian Daniil Medvedev by 6-3, 7-6 (5) and 6-3, reached his fourth US Open in a competition in which he is already the top finalist with ten appearances in the championship match.
Since he was seven, Nole had the dream of being number one and winning Wimbledon. However, as his professional career progressed, his goals grew, as did his determination to build his own legacy. When tennis was dominated by the Nadal-Federer duo, the Serbian began to conquer his first “greats” until he surpassed them and became the best this type of tournament has ever seen.
If Rafa has the record for most wins at Roland Garros (14) and Roger at Wimbledon (eight), Novak has ten crowns at the Australian Open, but he also has seven other Wimbledon trophies.
In addition, he is the only player who has won three of the four Grand Slams in the same year in four consecutive seasons, including this 2023. In the Masters he is the one who has won the most, with 39.
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The Serbian tennis player, once again as number one in the world ranking and at 36 years old, has the opportunity to reach several marks that would give him support to be the undisputed best tennis player in history: he is 13 professional titles won behind Jimmy Connors (103) , one year away from equaling Nadal with at least one title won per season (18) consecutively and aspiring to play in one more Olympic Games, in Paris 2024, in search of that gold medal that is missing from his record.
Of all these objectives, the only one that is clear is to “continue winning.” Now without the barrier of the vaccine to be able to play freely in any tournament on the tour, with a Medveded who seems to have the measure taken, still taking advantage of the consolidation curve in which the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz finds himself and with a Nadal almost Retired, his outlook is open to aspire to more conquests.
As long as his physique allows him to continue succeeding, retirement is something he does not think about. Djokovic is winning the fight against time and the new generations, who have him as a reference for what they would like to be one day: the lord of the Grand Slams.
2023-09-17 06:38:08
#LORD #GRAND #SLAMS
