Tennis G O A T: Who Will Eventually Be Considered the Greatest of These Three?

[JollyGood]

FEDERER

NADAL

DJOKOVIC



Rafael Nadal won his 13th French Open today means he has 20 Grand Slam wins equalling Roger Federer. Both have 3 Grand Slams more than Djokovic.

Have your say here in this thread..



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[Yaunfitda]

Hard to say though we will be the GOAT amongst this three. But in so far as Grand Slams goes, Nadal can overtake Federer and then Djokovic will do the same in the next 2-3 years. In seems that Djokovic seems to be the fresher of the 3 so he has better chances of staying for the game more than Federer and Nadal. But Nadal could be consider as the best in clay surface, no doubt about it.

But if Djokovic bested the record and won the most Grand Slams then my vote goes to Novak Djokovic. Also in the total weeks as number 1 Djokovic is second behind only to Federer, but as I have said, he also has the potential to break that, he just needed like 40 weeks to stay in the number 1 spot. And he seems to be unreachable despite the lost to Nadal in French Open this year. He will remain as number 1 at the end of the year.

[tyKiwanuka]

For me this would be Federer, but not because of any numbers. He just is the most talented one to ever walk on a tennis court. Watching him play, it felt so effortless what he was doing and he basically had no weaknesses and could do it all (forehand, one-handed backhand, net play, good/precise serve, effective slice) on any surface. His sheer numbers are surely a bit inflated, because he was in a league of his own until Nadal was more competitive on hard/grass and Djokovic showed up on the Tour - the era when Fed started to peak was rather weak looking back (Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Nalbandian, Davydenko etc.). But you won't find a player as gifted and elegant on court as him.

Nadal and Djokovic are more the working class, though they have lots of talent of course They are physically stronger, but this is not about talent, it can be learned/trained. I think Djokovic actually has tremendous numbers, because he had to deal with Nadal/Federer throughout his whole career and only in the last 2-3 years those two were fading a bit. But his style of play is not what I consider goat-ish, same goes for Nadal apart from clay.
And personality-wise Federer is above them as well, because he is such a likeable guy, well spoken and always a gentleman. Nadal is a very nice person, but kind of shy of course. Djokovic is just very fake imo and an attention whore.

My personal GOAT is Fernando Gonzalez though

[rhomelmabini]

Not that a fan of Lawn Tennis sport but my cousin was and all I could ever hear on her was she loves watching Rafael Nadal playing on the court not that she has a liking on him but of course the way the guy plays the game. As we grow this goes on my mind that this guy (Nadal) was the best in his league. This wasn't just my opinion at all but most likely just a bandwagon onto what my cousin use to tell me. To be honest, I watch some of his games and I think he has the talent to be the GOAT.

[JollyGood]

It will be tough to decide but I think it will be between Federer and Nadal having said I think the winner of most Grand Slams is not necessarily the final benchmark. Even if Nadal finishes his career with more Grand Slams than Federer he will not be able to overtake his weeks at number one record or beat the 100+ titles that Federer has won.

Federer has 103 ATP titles whereas Connors has 109, it is safe to say that Federer will return to beat that and retire on or after winning 110 and if he does not Nadal will never catch him because he has just 86.

[swogerino]

I am undecided between Nadal and Federer but I am going for Nadal as lately he won the most prestigious title of red sand fields the Roland Garros tournament.Federer is great too but during the years I think he has not been as constant as Nadal and that is why I choose Nadal as the greatest of all time until now.

[btc_angela]

I am undecided between Nadal and Federer but I am going for Nadal as lately he won the most prestigious title of red sand fields the Roland Garros tournament.Federer is great too but during the years I think he has not been as constant as Nadal and that is why I choose Nadal as the greatest of all time until now.

What do you mean not consistent? Federer has been and that's why Nadal and Djokovic is chasing him. One of his weakness though is clay, which is Nadal strength. But it's hard to really gauge at this point who is the greatest amongst the three, there are so many factors that needs to look at, specially how dominant they were during their prime years, who has been in the number one position for many years, the opposition they face.

And I agree with @tyKiwanuka about the personality of Roger and Rafa as more likeable, as compare to Djokovic which is someone consider the 'villain' amongst them. So I will be biased and say that Roger to me and then Rafa.

[casperBGD]

i would say Federer, it is not due to numbers, it is that his play is tennis at what it is, elegant and attacking play
Nadal and Djokovic are a bit defending players, where more running is doing the job, and it is maybe interesting to watch, but not as elegant, as tennis should be

when watching Federer, especially on the clay, you can see that he is not trying to catch all the points, where he should do more running than what a gentleman do, it is what a tennis in the first place should be, you made a bad move, and opponent shot was good enough to punish that, go on and play another one, and not chasing the ball, fight it back without watching, and trying to prolong the point on all matters

saying this, i am a fan of Nadal, so to speak, would like him to crash Federer numbers, but do not think that this would put him at GOAT position, in the eyes of tennis audience

[tsaroz]

These three are legends themselves. I'd consider Federer and Djokovic to be the legends of their time as Nadal is always in shadow of either Federer or Djokovic. Federer was once an unbeaten player until the younger Djokovic beat him. It's a surprise how long Federer is playing and competing with youngsters. It's about time for Federer to retire while Djokovic rule for some more years. Nadal would always be the king of clay.

[7788bitcoin]

Federer was once an unbeaten player until the younger Djokovic beat him. It's a surprise how long Federer is playing and competing with youngsters. It's about time for Federer to retire while Djokovic rule for some more years. Nadal would always be the king of clay.

As a fan this is the best time for sports fans as three legendary players competing against each other for over a decade which is unprecedented in the history of Tennis and we just cherish their skills and the best person win the tournament, if not for their competition we would not see such odds and any upset against them is a very huge thing as the odds will be really huge for the underdog and any other opponent facing these three legendary players will be a huge underdog.

Personally i am a huge fan of Federer and in clay there is no one in history better than Nadal and Djokovic on his day is unbeatable.

[Findingnemo]

I am not really a fan of Tennis but I watched some videos the internet, Djokovic is still at the top compared to the other two players in terms of player's ratings. on the list from http://www.espn.com/sports/tennis/rankings

Even though he only has 17 grand slam titles and 83 career titles he made it in less time span among other current players so he could be the great player in my opinion.

[Johnyz]

They are all good players but only one who are lucky enough will win the title. They beat each other before but for this one I’ll go for Djokovic here despite of being on a lower position. They all have the skills its really hard to place your bet so choose wisely, though I’m not a big fan of tennis I still see this sport as exciting.

[Strongkored]

Roger Federer is attractive player and he's the type of player who not only waits for the ball at the baseline when he is in front of the net makes the game interesting as well as his backhand one-handed and currently many players do it with two-handed including Nadal and Djokovic.
It is difficult to choose who is G.O.A.T among them, they have their own records, Nadal is still very likely to surpass Federer's achievements as well as Djokovic, they become legends and an inspiration to many young players.

[leea-1334]

Djokovic is ok and I bet he will overtake the other two in time but somehow in my mind it is always Federer,,, like ty I think Djokovic recent actions in trying to split tennis has hurt his reputation at least for people like me who never understood why he is trying to do that. Whereas Federer and Nadal to me are just always about the sport itself. Thoughts?

[jostorres]

These three are legends themselves. I'd consider Federer and Djokovic to be the legends of their time as Nadal is always in shadow of either Federer or Djokovic. Federer was once an unbeaten player until the younger Djokovic beat him. It's a surprise how long Federer is playing and competing with youngsters. It's about time for Federer to retire while Djokovic rule for some more years. Nadal would always be the king of clay.

I think the most hard working player of the three is actually Rafa Nadal and you can see while Federer is flashy and Novak is more like a machine in work but the guy who works hard for his points and doesn't feel like he is naturally as talented as Novak or Federer. It is similar to how I love Ronaldo over Messi not because Messi is inferior but because Messi is god gifted while Ronaldo is a product of hard work an made in gym.

Love how guys are sharing their opinion and also depends which phase of the career of the three plays we have watched the most because I have been watching fed express since childhood and I might be his biggest fan but that said we cannot den that Rafa works the hardest among these three and steals my vote this time.

[Daniel91]

These three are legends themselves. I'd consider Federer and Djokovic to be the legends of their time as Nadal is always in shadow of either Federer or Djokovic. Federer was once an unbeaten player until the younger Djokovic beat him. It's a surprise how long Federer is playing and competing with youngsters. It's about time for Federer to retire while Djokovic rule for some more years. Nadal would always be the king of clay.

I think the most hard working player of the three is actually Rafa Nadal and you can see while Federer is flashy and Novak is more like a machine in work but the guy who works hard for his points and doesn't feel like he is naturally as talented as Novak or Federer. It is similar to how I love Ronaldo over Messi not because Messi is inferior but because Messi is god gifted while Ronaldo is a product of hard work an made in gym.

Love how guys are sharing their opinion and also depends which phase of the career of the three plays we have watched the most because I have been watching fed express since childhood and I might be his biggest fan but that said we cannot den that Rafa works the hardest among these three and steals my vote this time.

I think that before answering the question of who was the greatest tennis player of all time, we should first determine the criteria for that selection.
Will we just look at the number of GS wins, or all the tournaments won, or the win-loss ratio in a career etc.
I would like to remind you that in the past GS were not as important as they are today and that probably the greatest tennis champion of the "old age", Rod Laver, did not play them all and thus missed the opportunity to win many more GS, probably more than 20.
And what about Bjorn Borg who interrupted his entire career at a time when he was the best and when he could have won a lot more tournaments, including GS?
Do you think we really should only look at GS and ignore all the other circumstances in choosing GOAT?
I think it is impossible to compare different tennis eras and that we can only choose the best tennis player of this age.
Personally, I think that the final decision on that will be made by Nadal and Djokovic in their mutual duels in the coming years.

[Cnut237]

It is of course difficult and a highly subjective decision on which there is unlikely to be a consensus. For me, we have to break it down, which simplifies the question.

Nadal is the GOAT on a clay court. I don't think there can be any serious objection to that.

But who is the GOAT across all surfaces? It can't be Nadal, he just hasn't won enough of the other grand slams - his superiority on clay masks the fact that he's not quite up to the standards of the other two on other surfaces.

So Federer 20 vs Djokovic 17. I'd say Federer edges it.

I think it is impossible to compare different tennis eras

This is a valid point, which is often brought up in GOAT discussions. I would argue though that whilst we can't compare talent very easily, we can certainly say that due to improved diet, fitness, strength, speed, and with highly qualified support staff... modern players can get more out of their talent than could players in the past. So their standard of play in general is better.


~

Incidentally, tennis balls are a great way to protect yourself from goat attacks.

[Porfirii]

Three are the top, but to me, Nadal will be considered the greatest. No one has a crystal ball but it's just my hunch...

Trying to be logic here and not subjective, I would say that IMO he is the most humble of the three and therefore he may try to better himself harder. I've been following him since he was a child.

[babygun]

For me there is no doubt that Federer is the GOAT. He has the most natural talent of them all. It would even make no difference if Nadal or Djokovic would win more grand slams than Federer.

I hope that Federer would be able to win 1 or more grandslams. Even though he is 39 years old, he is still able to compete at the highest level. After 2012, some people were saying that he would never win a grand slam anymore, but the proved them wrong!

[notblox1]

Good question.
Let's look how old each of them are and who has more chances to play tennis longer if we don't count any potential injuries:

Roger Federer
8 August 1981 (age 39)

Rafael Nadal
3 June 1986 (age 34)

Novak Djokovic
22 May 1987 (age 33)

Federer is the oldest guy here and most likely he will end his tennis carrier first, and if we look at ATP rankings and points he is 4th in the list with lot less points than top 3 players.
My bet for GOAT would be for Djokovic or Nadal because they have years to catch up and make new records.

Djokovic is better h2h with Federer (23 vs 27)
Djokovic is also better h2h with Nadal  (29 vs 27)
And Nadal is much better than Federer in h2h (24 vs 16)

This just confirms that Federer can not be GOAT and it will be decided with Nadal or Djokovic.
Depending on what ground they play Nadal can be better like shown in last match when he destroyed Djokovic 3:0, but remember that Djokovic is still better h2h  


https://www.atptour.com/en/rankings