Nole recently became the first player to complete 400 weeks as World No.1.
G.O.A.T. stands for “Greatest Of All Time,” an acronym that pundits frequently use to characterize athletes at the pinnacle of their abilities in a variety of sports. It’s a way of expressing the feelings that come with having seen something remarkable happen on the pitch. Particularly in an individual sport as opposed to a team sport, a player who emerges victorious might readily be referred to as the “GOAT.”
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Since tennis is the most popular individual sport in the world, the word “GOAT” is frequently used to describe it. More so in the last 20 years, when the world saw a rise in the number of outstanding athletes in the men’s and women’s circuits. It was referred to as the “Big Three” era in the men’s division because of the dominance of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer.
The most sought-after titles on the ATP Tour schedule each year are the Masters tournaments, Grand Slam events, and year-end event – ATP Finals. These are termed as the ‘Big Titles’ collectively along with the quadrennial Summer Olympics.
In this let’s dig deep into the numbers to see who has the most titles across competitions among tennis maestro’s Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Grand Slam Titles
Novak Djokovic – 24
Rafael Nadal – 22
Roger Federer – 20
Grand Slam events are the showpiece tournaments in Tennis and the trio of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer have won 65 of the 80 Grand Slam Single finals that have taken place since Federer’s maiden Grand Slam victory.
The tennis community is aware that Nadal is a completely different animal on Roland Garros’ clay courts Spaniard holds the record for the most Grand Slam victories for any player with 14 French Open crowns. With his aggressive style of play, he has been injury-prone and that’s why one could see just two and four championships each in the hard courts of Australia and the USA respectively. Along with two more from Wimbledon Championships, the southpaw has 22 Grand Slam titles.
One of the most beautiful spectacles was Federer’s perseverance and the romance with Wimbledon’s grass courts. The maestro from Switzerland won eight Wimbledon titles. The clay court was a long-standing obstacle for Federer as he won his lone title in 2009. The fans in the Australian Open and US Open were gifted as well as they witnessed him win 11 titles together.
The hard courts of Kangaroo Land became Djokovic’s first love as he won a record ten titles there – Australian Open. The latter half of the previous decade saw the Serbian win multiple Grand Slams each year. With three French Open titles, seven Wimbledon championships, and five US Open titles, the 36-year-old stands at the top with 24 titles.
ATP Masters 1000
Novak Djokovic – 40
Rafael Nadal – 36
Roger Federer – 28
Since its introduction in 1990, the ATP Masters 1000 competition has been an annual series of nine tennis tournaments that feature the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The majority of Masters finals were best-of-five set affairs until 2007, at which point all competitions were determined in best-of-three set contests starting in 2008.
It’s Djokovic who has won the most titles taking home 40 of them. In 2018, he became the first player to complete the Career Golden Masters which refers to a player to have won all nine Singles Masters titles. The Cincinnati Masters was the elusive title that he took home by beating Roger Federer. Furthermore, he completed a second Career Golden Masters in 2020.
Rafael Nadal stands second with 36 titles with most of them coming from Clay courts. But taking nothing away from the southpaw, he was equally competitive in other courts across the world. Had he stayed out of injuries, the world would have seen more ‘Bit The Title’ celebrations in the post-match ceremonies. His arch-rival, Federer, in his unique classy way has won 28 ATP Masters 1000 titles. The number might look small but he has given some of the greatest matches.
ATP Finals
Novak Djokovic – 7
Rafael Nadal – 0
Roger Federer – 6
The ATP Tour’s season-ending championship is called the ATP Finals. Following the four majors, it is the most important tennis tournament in the men’s calendar, with the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams competing based on season-long results. Nadal has never won the title having lost to both Federer and Djokovic once in the two finals he has played in as many years.
Roger Federer has had some historic battles with legends like Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, and David Nalbadian in the past and with six titles and was leading the table untill 2023. The Djoker ‘Juggernaut’ went ahead of ‘Fedex Express’ to become the first man to win seven ATP Finals titles beating Jannik Sinner in his home terrain in Turin.
The 2023 finals once again showed how Djokovic takes his game to the next level when the pressure is at its peak.
Olympics
Novak Djokovic – 0
Rafael Nadal – 1
Roger Federer – 0
While Nadal might not have won any ATP Finals, but he has won a coveted medal which both his counterparts lack in their cabinet in the singles category. It is the yellow metal from the Olympics which the Spaniard won from Beijing in 2008. He followed it up with a gold medal in the men’s doubles in 2016 a feat that Roger Federer alongside Stan Wawrinka achieved in Beijing. However, the singles medal has eluded the Swiss maestro.
Roger Federer came close to winning one in 2012 when it was played on his favorite Wimbledon grass courts. He was stopped by Andy Murray who was determined to win at his home. On the other hand, Novak’s best performance has been the bronze medal finish from 2008. It baffles many how Novak finds ways to lose in the Olympics in contests that he should have won.
