Despite the difficulties of 2024, Novak Djokovic continues to break records. Age doesn’t seem like a burden for the Serbian champion
The last twenty years has highlighted in the world of tennis the constant rivalry between three of the greatest tennis players of all time, we are obviously talking about the Big Three. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have almost equally divided titles and records that are destined to remain in history.
In the beginning it was Federer and Nadal, the two gave life to ‘Fedal’, the greatest rivalry of all time with the Spaniard dominating on clay and Roger putting on a show on grass. Then he arrived, the Serbian champion Novak Djokovic, a phenomenon who started a little slowly but who with sacrifice and hard work surpassed everyone, including his two rivals. Over the years, Djokovic has become the most successful tennis player of all time, consecrating himself with record after record.
Age advances for everyone and in 2024 the 24-time winner of Slam tournaments has begun to struggle. Zero titles, also due to the rise of our Jannik Sinner, a South Tyrolean tennis player who – in some ways – seems to be following in the footsteps of the Balkan champion. Djokovic struggled and he arrived in April with 0 titles under his belt in this first part of the season. But in the meantime a new record has arrived.
Djokovic is still better than Federer and Nadal, is he the GOAT?
In terms of number of Grand Slam titles and weeks at the top of the rankings, Djokovic has surpassed Federer and Nadal almost everywhere and has become the most successful tennis player ever. In the last few days he has achieved yet another great record, a new sensational one which perhaps puts the tombstone on the GOAT question.
By GOAT we mean the best of all time in a specific sport (as Michael Jordan is often defined) and Djokovic, in the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, set a new record. Nole has found – thanks to the victory over Alex De Minaur – the 77th semifinal in a Masters 1000 tournament, scary numbers to say the least.
Nole thus overtook Rafa Nadal who was stuck at 76 and distanced himself even further from Federer, who was stuck at 66. The gap in terms of numbers between Djokovic and the others is increasingly evident and Djokovic hopes to achieve even new records. One of the Serbian champion’s main objectives is the Paris Olympic Games, the only tournament missing from his extraordinary list of achievements. This year, now in a few months, Nole dreams of closing the circle and finding yet another great result.
