The Big Three: Solving the GOAT Matrix in Men’s Tennis (Part I)

For a phenomenal talent like Federer, he started late for his Grand Slam scorecard as he was almost 23 when he won his first Wimbledon on July 9, 2003. Nadal, on the other hand, won his first French Open just two days after his 19th birthday, whereas Novak was a few months short of his 21st birthday when he won his first Australian Open.

While Federer is grace, Nadal has redefined the top spin forehand that has unsettled most of his opponents, forcing them into mistiming their shots. Rafa’s forehands seem like looping slow returns to the viewer, but the spin has decimated his opponents as mere mortals. A bagel for Novak in the 2020 French Open final stands testimony to that. His never say die approach has made his brand of tennis a unique feature that will be adopted by many players in coming years.

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Novak on the other hand has redefined the art of service returns and capitalizes on the fact that a player completing the serve is hardly in a position to take advantage if the return is fast, precise and forces him to move rather than receive the return within a few feet of the center. This was the strategy used by Jim Courier to win against Stefan Edberg in the early 90s and by Andre Agassi against Boris Becker but seemed to have been forgotten till Novak made it his greatest weapon. Novak excels in returns and neutralizes the opponents’ advantage to a great extent, making him the only player to beat Rafa twice in the French Open, four times in Clay court finals, and in a streak of seven finals they played. Novak’s agility makes him cover ground faster and his shots while sliding enable him to keep still and execute better placement of winners.

If playing style were to be the sole factor to evaluate the Greatest, Federer would be the greatest and will perhaps continue to be the most graceful player for a long time. Style, however, is not the only factor and with a heavy heart, I have to keep the style as only one of the factors and give time to the other aspects so that a fair evaluation would be possible. That shall be done in the next edition of this article.

(Manoj Bhat, founder of SpIns Interactional School Surabaya and tennis spectator wrote this article. The views expressed in this article belong to the writer).