Rafael Nadal’s victory over Daniil Medvedev in the final of the Australian Open left the Spaniard at the top of the ranking of ‘Grand Slam’ titles in the men’s category. Ahead of the classification are three women: Margaret Court (24), Serena Williams (23), and Steffi Graf (22). The debate opens: Who is the best player in history among men?
Grand Slam titles
Nadal has 21 majors to Djokovic and Federer’s 20. The Serbian, however, brings together most of the rest of the brands.
Masters 1,000
Novak has 37 Masters 1,000 crowns, one more than Nadal and nine more than Federer. The Serbian won the last tournament of the category last November in Paris-Bercy which allowed him to tie with the Spaniard. Similarly, he is the only one who has done double in the nine TMS of the calendar.
Weeks as number one
Djokovic is also the longest-serving player topping the ATP charts. It adds 357 weeks, 47 more than the previous record that was in Federer’s possession until March 8, 2021. Nadal is sixth in that ranking with 209 weeks as number one.
Record points in a campaign
The dominance of the Belgrade tennis player is demonstrated in that he broke the record for points in a season. It was in 2015 when Novak accumulated 16,785 points thanks to 11 titles: Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome, Wimbledon, US Open, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris-Bercy, and Masters Cup.
Davis Cup titles and Olympic Games
Nadal, on the other hand, is the one with the most Davis Cups with a total of five for one of Djokovic and another of Federer. The Balearic can also boast of having climbed to the top of the podium in a Games in both singles (Beijing 2008) and doubles (Rio 2016).
The most Nole achieved was bronze in Beijing and Federer won gold in doubles in the Chinese capital and silver in London in 2012.
Clashes between the three
Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer have starred in one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the sport. The biggest rivalry is that of the Serbian and the Spaniard who have come to cross each other on 58 occasions, with Nole dominating the precedents by 30 to 28.
The Belgrade tennis player also has in favor of the head-to-head with Federer: 27 wins by 23 losses.
More titles on the circuit
Roger overtakes his two great rivals in terms of track records. And it has 103 tournaments won by Nadal’s 90 and Djokovic’s 86. The Swiss, with 40 years and injured in his knee, seems far from the pools at the numerical level. The struggle is a matter of two.