It was clear that the achievement of the seventh Wimbledon by Novak Djokovic was going to cause a new debate about who is the best player in history. You know, the classic GOAT debate concerning Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal y Novak Djokovicalthough it is true that the Swiss has lost a lot of strength in this pulse. Patrick Mouratoglou, current coach of Simona Halep and one of the personalities who is always encouraged to give his opinion, left his point of view on social networks on this subject, although in the end he did not get wet with a name. Thus he defined the French to the three great legends in statements collected by Sportskeeda.
“He is playing at one of the highest levels of tennis in his entire professional career, we recently saw him beat Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, but he still has many problems with injuries.”
“He is the youngest of the three and right now he is in excellent physical condition, so he has the opportunity to play at the highest level of competition for a few more years. However, it is possible that he will not be able to play the next two Grand Slams, neither the US Open 2022 nor the Australian Open 2023. That means that his next opportunity to lift a great title will be in Rafa Nadal’s house, at Roland Garros of 2023”.
“He will be 41 years old next August, but he plans to return to the circuit and compete in the Laver Cup and the ATP 500 in Basel. It would be incredible to see him return to the court once again, but to see him win another Grand Slam seems to me a very unlikely option.
In short, three historical players who, currently, no longer start from the same height in this race to be the best, although each one can defend his candidacy by clinging to various statistics. “The race for the GOAT is still on and now it’s more exciting than everPatrick adds. “First of all, let’s talk about the Grand Slam titles, with Novak winning this last Wimbledon and placing himself with 21 titles, one ahead of Roger’s 20 and one behind Rafa’s 22. However, when we break them down, Djokovic leads at the Australian Open with 9 titles, Rafa dominates at Roland Garros with 14 titles, while Federer still rules at Wimbledon with his 8 titles, along with the 5 he has at the US Open. , exposes the French, highlighting the best of each house.
However, the million dollar question is how long will we continue to see veterans ruling the locker room with an iron fist, this is where Mouratoglou has more doubts. “For all the members of the Big3, the passage of time is a problem; the more time passes, the more difficult it will be to keep winning Grand Slams, as the younger players will be closer to catching them. Alcaraz and Sinner are going to win Grand SlamsMedvedev has already won the US Open, and then we have some players who have been very close like Kyrgios, Berrettini or Tsitsipas”, Halep’s mentor values.
Do only the Grand Slams matter?
In case they still want to add fuel to the fire, Mouratoglou dares to expand his study table and also add achievements that go beyond the Grand Slams. “Novak has won more Masters 1000 tournaments than anyone, he has 38 titles in this category, above Rafa’s 36 and Roger’s 28. Rafa is the only one of the three to have won individual gold at an Olympic Games, while Federer leads the ATP Fines champions table with six titles, as opposed to Novak’s 5 and Rafa’s 0. But of course, Roger is the one who has won the most titles of the three in general, adding 103 against Nadal’s 92 and Djokovic’s 88. Is it just a matter of numbers?”, interprets the Frenchman. What do you think?
