Novak Djokovic is the youngest of the “Big Three” in men’s tennis, but in terms of major successes it is almost on a par with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. His second French Open title won on Sunday was Grand Slam triumph number 19 for the Serb, the rivals from Switzerland and Spain each have 20. If you also count final victories at the Olympics, Masters 1000 and ATP finals, Djokovic is already in front. Because he achieved 60 of his 84 final wins at this level.
At Masters 1000 level, Nadal can keep up with the “Djoker” with 36 titles each, with Federer having 28. In return, Djokovic scores with five successes at the season finale, 35-year-old Nadal only has one. The 39-year-old Federer does not help his six to make up for the deficit. The Swiss had 54 titles in this ranking, Nadal including his Olympic victory in 2008 with 57 and thus three fewer than the 34-year-old world number one.
The Styrian Thomas Muster is still holding up very well in this ranking, which has been held since 1990, as seventh, the French Open winner 1995 also has eight Masters 1000 titles (formerly Super 9). In front of him are the Americans Pete Sampras (30) and Andre Agassi (27) and the Scot Andy Murray (20). The German Boris Becker is on par with Muster. Dominic Thiem can refer to two titles – Indian Wells 2019 and US Open 2020.
However, they have not yet achieved the ultimate goal of a calendar grand slam, only Roy Emerson and Rod Laver have so far achieved that. The latter succeeded twice, as an amateur and as a professional – the last time in 1969. “Novak is a different player, he is mentally very strong,” said the 82-year-old about Djokovic after his 6: 7 (2), 2: 6, 6: 3,6: 2,6: 4 victory over the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. “He doesn’t mind being a game or two back in the last sentence. He keeps fighting. “
This time Djokovic sweetened the title win with the semi-final victory over “Sand King” Nadal, the 13-time winner of Roland Garros. What Thiem had not yet achieved with this major, Djokovic achieved for the second time. And not only there the Belgrade doubles, because as the first player of the “Open Era” (since 1968) he has won each of the four Grand Slam titles at least twice. Otherwise in tennis history only two others had done it – Emerson and Laver.
“Anything is possible, and I’ve put myself in a good position for the Golden Slam,” Djokovic even referred to the combination of winning all four majors and the Olympics two weeks before the start of Wimbledon. The US Open would then mark the end of this coup in September. In any case, he can be trusted. With the victory over Tsitsipas he also took over the lead in the annual ranking from the Hellenes and increased that in the world rankings.
After his first French Open title win in 2016, Djokovic was of course in a similar situation, at that time he even held all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. That is only not the case this time because Thiem won the US Open and Wimbledon 2020 did not take place. In 2019, Djokovic triumphed in London. Five years ago, after his triumph in Paris, he only got there in lap three and slipped into a low – at least by his standards.
Tsitsipas is only 22 years old and may still have many of Djokovic’s successes ahead of him. Given the circumstances, he made the first two final movements incredibly impressive, as he had only found out about his grandmother’s death shortly before the final. “A wise woman whose faith in life and whose will to give and care cannot be compared to any other person I have ever met,” said Tsitsipas. For the current lawn tournament in Halle, he canceled on Monday.
From: APA / dpa
