Will History Ever See A Tennis Trio Like This?

For even those who do not follow or watch tennis avidly, the achievements of the trio, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, is the stuff of legend

It could have been yet another epic clash between two titans for the Wimbledon title on July 10, 2022. Unfortunately, Rafael Nadal pulled out before the semi finals because of injury and Novak Djokovic comfortably coasted to his 21 st Grand Slam Title. Just in case you didn’t know, a Grand Slam title is a victory in one of the four major lawn tennis tournaments in the world: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. As of now, Djokovic is one step or title behind Nadal who has won 22 Grand Slam titles. Just behind Djokovic is another tennis great Roger Federer who was won 20 titles. For even those who do not follow or watch tennis avidly, the achievements of the trio, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, is the stuff of legend. There are violent disagreements between fans as to who among the three is the greatest ever; just as football balls fight over Pele, Maradona and Messi. But tennis fans agree on one thing: there has never been and will never be a trio of greats who played against each other for trophies and glory.

For those love data, the trio offers an incredible wealth of records. For one, they are far ahead of other tennis’s greats of the past. As the accompanying chart shows, Pete Sampras with 14 Grand Slam titles is way behind Federer who has 20. The only other tennis player who has managed to cross double digits is the former great Bjorn Borg who won 11 Grand Slam titles before he abruptly and unexpectedly retired at the peak of his career. Some of the other records set and held by the trio are simply incredible.

For example, Rafael Nadal has won a staggering 14 French Open titles; equal to the total number of Grand Slam titles won by Pete Sampras. No other player has come anywhere close to this record. Roger Federer, though eclipsed by the other two, still holds some records that will probably never be broken. For one, he has reached the semi finals of Grand Slam tournaments 23 consecutive times. Then again, he has been ranked world Number One for 23 consecutive weeks. Novak Djokovic has his own records that would be hard to beat. He is the only player to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year in 2015, apart from winning the year end World Championship the same year. The tennis players’ body ATP has ranked him as the number one for 365 weeks, fa ahead of Federer at 310 weeks.

Data is fascinating not just when it comes to politics or economics. For data enthusiasts, sports too offers a wealth of information and numbers to crunch.