Novak Djokovic’s 23rd Grand Slam win makes him the greatest tennis player of all time

After winning the French Open on Sunday, 36-year-old Novak Djokovic returned to the top spot in the world rankings, became the only tennis player in history to win each of the four Grand Slam tournaments at least three times, and most importantly, won his 23rd major. thus setting a historical record. Only he himself can improve this achievement in the foreseeable future.

In mid-May, at the Italian Open in Rome, the penultimate major competition of the clay season, which had been extremely unsuccessful for Novak Djokovic before arriving at Roland Garros, the Serbian tennis player was asked if he was counting on something serious in Paris. “Yes,” Djokovic replied curtly, making an enigmatic expression on his face. And three and a half weeks later, he won the French Open in brilliant style, breaking the resistance of both the Russian Karen Khachanov, who was the first to take one set from him in this tournament, and his young competitor in the fight for leadership in the world ranking Carlos Alcaras, and the cool ground specialist Norwegian Kasper Ruud, now a two-time loser in the Paris finals. Thanks to this, Djokovic regained the first line in the world ranking, which, by the way, he spends for the 389th week. He also became the only tennis player in history to win at least three times each of the four Grand Slam championships. And most importantly, Novak Djokovic has become the sole leader in the total number of titles won at these most prestigious tennis tournaments. Now he has 23 wins on his account: one more than the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, and three more than the Swiss Roger Federer. At the same time, Federer ended his career last year, and the injured 37-year-old Nadal recently announced that he will hold his farewell tour next season. That is, his chances of winning at least one more Major are minimal.

There is a logical explanation for the fact that the extraordinary race of the three tennis giants will almost certainly remain with Djokovic. If Federer was rightly considered the genius of attacking play, based on a brilliant sense of the ball, and Nadal was a great athlete who, through more reliable, powerful tennis, dominated clay courts primarily, then Djokovic’s game combines the best elements of both styles.

Its strength lies in universalism brought to perfection. Djokovic knows absolutely everything in tennis and is able to win at the expense of completely different trump cards.

This ability, combined with vast experience, as well as a champion character, has many times allowed him to overcome those difficult periods in time, when, for example, last spring, his form left much to be desired.

Federer-Nadal-Djokovic’s battle for the record for the most wins in the Majors, the rarest example of a rivalry between three superstars of equal skill and charisma, began exactly two decades ago with Federer’s victory at Wimbledon (see background). Ironically, it was in 2003 that the Serbian, who is six years younger than the Swiss, held his first professional tournaments. For a long time it seemed that Federer, the obvious leader of men’s tennis in the mid-2000s, was impossible to get ahead of. Nadal was considered a narrow clay specialist, and Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open only at the beginning of 2008, when Federer already had 12 such victories. But then both pursuers began to approach the Swiss, who was not helped to remain a record holder even by an outstanding renaissance in 2017 and 2018. Having won the Australian Open five years ago, Federer has reached a round mark of 20 titles. At that time, he was ahead of Nadal by four titles and Djokovic by eight, but in 2019 he lost the outstanding Wimbledon final to the Serbian tennis player and had no more chances to improve his performance.

Nadal’s Australian triumph in 2022 put him ahead of Federer. But time was already against the Spaniard, who, suffering from chronic foot problems, won Roland Garros for the 14th time a few months later. And Djokovic, who in 2021 at the age of 34 won Melbourne, Paris and London, only stumbling in the New York final against Daniil Medvedev, used his chance. He took the last three Grand Slam tournaments in which he participated – last year’s Wimbledon, as well as this year’s Australian Open and the current Roland Garros, where at 36 years and 20 days he became the oldest champion since he won in Paris in 1930 37-year-old American Bill Tilden.

Whether Djokovic will be able to improve his current figure, which looked simply unrealistic ten years ago, is largely a matter of his own motivation. At his age, it is not easy to keep it even for such an outstanding master. But a lot will also depend on what the Serb’s competitors will be able to show in the near future, primarily Carlos Alcaras and Daniil Medvedev. The Russian at Roland Garros failed, losing in the first round, and the Spaniard in the semi-final against Djokovic could not stand the tension. This does not mean that this will always be the case, although the Serbian will start the upcoming Wimbledon as a favorite in any case.

Evgeny Fedyakov, Paris