‘I Played Against Federer, Nadal & Djokovic – Here’s Who the GOAT of Tennis is’
Rafael Nadal bid a tearful farewell to tennis on Tuesday following his defeat in the Davis Cup, joining Roger Federer as the second of the ‘Big Three’ to hang up his racket in the last few years.
With the Spaniard retiring and Novak Djokovic as the last one standing, the debate over who is the greatest male tennis player of all time is only going to intensify, as a convincing case can be made for all three of the icons.
Djokovic has the edge in terms of longevity and total number of Grand Slam titles with 24, a number which could still increase, but Nadal has two Olympic titles to go with his 22 major titles, and his performances on clay are the most dominant any player has ever been on a single surface. Whereas Federer, although he has the fewest Grand Slams with 20, has had by far the greatest cultural impact and his peak between 2003 and 2010 is arguably the greatest of any player in the history of the sport, winning 16 Grand Slam titles and reaching 10 consecutive major finals.There is clearly very little to choose between them, but that didn’t stop Nick Kyrgios, the notoriously outspoken, former world number 13 ranked player, from giving his verdict on who he believes is the GOAT.The Australian has faced off against all three of the legends multiple times throughout his career, which puts him in a unique position to judge who he thinks is the greatest male tennis player of all time.
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist was recently doing co-commentary for Eurosport on one of Djokovic’s matches, and when asked if he thought the Serbian was the most complete player of all time, his response was emphatic.
