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Who is the best: Djokovic, Federer or Nadal?

14th July, 2015
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Will we see Novak Djokovic face Andy Murray at the Australian Open final again? (Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images )
Roar Guru
14th July, 2015
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John McEnroe declared after Wimbledon that he believes Novak Djokovic is among the five greatest players of all time.

As Djokovic continues to strengthen his hold on the world number one ranking, most recently by winning his ninth Grand Slam title, this claim carries some merit.

In fact in Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal we have three candidates for the top five greatest players of all time currently active.

By general conscious, Federer is regarded as the greatest player of his generation.

He holds several records in the Open Era, including the longest time spent at word number one (302 weeks), and he has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles; reaching each Grand Slam final at least five times (an all-time record).

Between Wimbledon 2005 and the Australian Open 2010 he appeared in 18 of 19 finals and has won the most matches in Grand Slams (291) and is the first to record more than 65 wins each at each Grand Slam tournament.

Despite failing to win a Grand Slam since Wimbledon 2012, Federer won 73 matches in 2014 which is the most wins he has had since going 92-5 in 2006.

Andre Agassi, Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors and Rod Laver are the only men to have won multiple Grand Slams after turning 30, Federer is far from a spent force.

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However do those figures make him greater than Nadal and the hard-chasing Djokovic?

Federer won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003. He added three more titles the following year, where there didn’t exist an obvious rival for the Swiss maestro.

Rafael Nadal won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2005 and has gone onto to win 14 Grand Slams, one more than Federer since Nadal won his first.

Tellingly Nadal enjoys a 23-10 record over Federer in all matches, including a decisive 9-2 advantage in Grand Slam matches.

Nadal’s record is somewhat imbalanced by the fact he has completely dominated the French Open winning it nine times and putting together a winning streak of 81 matches on clay.

Of his 66 career titles only 18 have been on hard or grass courts. Still, he has a career Grand Slam, four Davis Cups, an Olympic singles gold medal and has spent 141 weeks as the world number one

Interestingly, Federer is 11-15 in all finals on clay, but has lost 11 finals on the surface to Nadal.

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Injures have seen Nadal tumble down the rankings recently. He has lost 23 matches in the last two years. He won the US Open in 2013, but last won Wimbledon in 2010 and appears unlikely to win another Grand Slam on a surface apart from clay.

Despite appearing in three French Open finals, until he completes a career Grand Slam Djokovic might not belong in the same conversation yet, however he is pushing hard.

He has spent 155 weeks as world number one and since 2011 has made 14 of 19 Grand Slam finals, winning eight.

He has a 20-20 record against Federer, who won seven of the first nine matches at which point Djokovic had only won a single Grand Slam (2008 Australian).

Djokovic leads 10–5 in all finals, including 2-1 in Grand Slam finals.

Djokovic and Nadal have meet each other 44 times which is a record in the open era. Nadal enjoys a slight 23-21 advantage. It is the only rivalry to involve meetings at all four Grand Slam finals (including consecutive Grand Slam finals) and a record 22 Masters Series matches.

Djokovic leads 12-10 in all finals, but trails 9-4 in Grand Slam matches and 4-3 in Grand Slam finals. Up until 2008, Nadal won 14 of the first 18 matches, but Djokovic has won 17 of the last 26 encounters.

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So who is the best?

Federer, a model consistency who holds the all-time record for Grand Slam singles titles and at 33 continues to remain relevant?

Nadal, the clay court master who enjoys a winning record against both Federer and Djokovic, but has tumbled badly in the world rankings in recent years?

Or is it Djokovic, who has been the undisputed best for two years and appears to be only getting better?

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