Novak Djokovic Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
A stunning statistic about Novak Djokovic has been utilised by tennis pundit Guido Monaco to highlight the Serbian player’s advantage over Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Monaco, a former Italian player, highlighted the fact that a higher percentage of Djokovic’s overall titles have been ‘big titles’ in comparison to Nadal and Federer.
The four Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP Finals, the nine ATP Masters 1000 events and the Olympics can all be categorised as ‘big titles’ in tennis.
Djokovic, who claimed his 97th ATP title with his triumph at last week’s Paris Masters, has won a staggering tally of 70 big events, which accounts for a huge 72% of all of his tournament victories.
This is higher than the 64.1% (59 of 92) of Nadal’s titles that have come at big tournaments, and well above the 52.4% (54 of 103) ratio held by Federer.
The 36-year-old has claimed six titles during a superb 2023 campaign so far, including three Grand Slams with victories at the Australian Open, French Open and US Open.
Djokovic’s straight-set triumph against Grigor Dimitrov in the final of the Paris Masters saw him secure a record-extending 40th ATP Masters 1000 crown.
Nadal won his most recent big title with his victory at the 2022 French Open, while Federer’s last success at an event in this category was the 2019 Miami Open.
Speaking on an episode of TennisMania, tennis commentator Monaco illustrated just how impressive Djokovic’s domination at big tournaments is.
“The numbers are starting to lose sense, because they are so large. However, it is right to remember that he has 97 titles in general, of which 40 are in the Masters 1000 category, 24 Slams and six [ATP] Finals – which are the most important [events],” said the Italian, as quoted by OA Sport.
“If we do the math, there are 70 of this size out of 97 in total: this stuff is absurd. [Jimmy] Connors has won 109 [titles], but he has won few (eight) Slams. Nadal has 36 Masters 1000s, 22 Slams, Olympic gold and zero [ATP] Finals, so in total he is 59 out of 92.
“Federer, on the other hand, has 28 Masters 1000s and his percentage between major and overall titles is just over 50%, Nadal scores just over 60 [%] and Djokovic goes over 70%. He (Djokovic) said that now he only participates in the [Masters] 1000 and the Slams – only these tournaments count.”
Djokovic will next feature at the ATP Finals in Turin next week, where he is aiming to win a record seventh title at the year-end championships. He currently shares the record of six triumphs at the event with Federer.
The Serbian defeated Casper Ruud in the final at last year’s edition of the ATP Finals to win the tournament for the first time since 2015.
The world No 1 will also compete for Serbia at the Davis Cup Finals knockout stage in Malaga later month as he looks to lead his nation to a second title in the team competition. Serbia will face Great Britain in the quarter-finals, with the Finals stage to be played from November 21 to 26.
Novak Djokovic Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
