Retired Roger Federerthere is already an inestimable certainty in the ‘Big Three’: with 20, the Swiss is one of the three who will have fewer titles of Grand Slaman issue that must be resolved in the interim Rafael Nadal (22) and Novak Djokovic (twenty-one).
Are you ruling out that fact to be considered the best tennis player in history? Of course not. The greatness of the three is too great to circumscribe that difference in a single number. One number is not relevant enough to exclude any of them from the equation.
That will remain for history, statistics and, yes, also for the pride and personal itch of the one who ultimately won the most ‘big’, but it is not the only yardstick to answer such a question.
In this debate there is already a way to avoid more headaches: tennis will have not one, but three greatest players in history. Anyone who says Federer, Nadal or Djokovic is his favorite would be as legitimate as anyone who sticks to the ‘Big Three’ as a whole, without prejudice.
For titles, achievements, shows and games, the three have many arguments to support the weight of purple. The efficiency of Nadal and Roland Garros (14 titles), Djokovic in Australia (9) and Federer at Wimbledon (8) form the best summary of the lasting legacy that the ‘Big Three’ will leave in the collective memory of tennis, which is why it is so difficult to remove any of them from Olympus.
In one aspect or another of the game, each has virtues superior to the other two, but that is part of the normality within the sport and a rivalry without equal. Each proclaims their own virtues and tries to escape the others and, in this constant search, the three feed off each other to become better.
“Without Federer, a part of my life is also gone,” admitted Nadal, the best phrase to sum up that none of the three can be understood without the two.
No one beats Federer in beauty and technical refinement, who built his legend on the basis of a deadly forehand, mobility and attack, the best exponent of the famous phrase of the boxer Muhammad Ali “Float like a butterfly and freeze like a bee.”
Roger flows across the floor like a graceful dancer, but with his punches he unleashes direct blows on his rivals. Racquet in hand, he is the closest thing to perfection. His idols would say he elevated tennis to the category of art and few would dare deny it. Federer is the Mozart of tennis. Or Mozart is the Federer of musicthat Swiss is also a genius for a reason.
For his part, on and off the track, Nadal has a unique mind, perhaps the best in the history of the sport for the barbarities he has achieved. That winning and privileged mentality allowed him to continue expanding his myth no matter how much adversity he encountered in his career. And Djokovic is the ultimate competitive bulldog, the predator who is always on the lookout and no prey can escape him when he is well.
When Roger won his first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2003, the start of the ‘Federer era’ was heralded. But not. The ‘is Federer’ in essence it didn’t last long because what the Swiss really inaugurated was the ‘Big Three era’. That said, tennis will have the three best players in history.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
