1 record each of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic that will never be broken
The Big Three of tennis - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic - have enthralled us for a long time. While Federer has already retired, Nadal is probably in the midst of his last season of professional tennis. Djokovic, however, is still going strong and is the No. 1 player in the world at the moment.
Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have won 20, 22 and 24 Grand Slams, respectively, which have been accumulated during the best couple of decades in the history of tennis. In the process, they have broken each others' records for fun as well. In this article, we will take a look at one record of each of the three players which might never be broken.
#3. Roger Federer - 237 consecutive weeks as the World No. 1
Only six male players have been World No. 1 for 200 or more weeks. However, Roger Federer has spent 237 consecutive weeks at the top of the rankings. The Swiss became No. 1 for the first time in his career in February 2004 after winning that year's Australian Open. He went on to hold the ranking for over four years until Rafael Nadal surpassed him in August 2008.
Federer's tally of 237 consecutive weeks as World No. 1 towers over several tennis legends, with second-placed Jimmy Connors being at the top for 160 weeks in a row. At the moment, Novak Djokovic is World No. 1 but even with his fitness levels, being at the top for over four years on the trot seems a very, very uphill task.
Hence, it won't be a surprise if Federer's record stood the test of time indefinitely.
#2. Rafael Nadal – 14 French Open titles
The term, “King of Clay” falls short in describing Nadal’s dominance on the surface. Probably, “Emperor of Clay” serves the purpose better. 14 out of Nadal's 22 Grand Slam titles were won on the red dirt at Roland Garros in Paris.
Bjorn Borg is a distant second-best with six French Open titles. Nadal has a mind-numbingly good win-loss record of 112-3 at the French Open.
Nadal won his maiden Grand Slam in 2005, beating Mariano Puerta in the final. None of the 14 finals involving the Spaniard went to the fifth set, which is an amazing record. His most dominant performance probably came in the 2008 finals, when he annihilated Federer with a near-perfect display of clay-court tennis.
#1. Novak Djokovic – Most weeks as the World No. 1:
Djokovic has spent a staggering 419 weeks as the World No. 1 already, with Federer the next best with 302 weeks. The Serb is an embodiment of metronomic accuracy and relentless excellence, which has made him the greatest tennis player of all time in terms of pure statistics.
Sampras’ tally of 286 weeks as the No. 1 seemed to be a colossal number before the era of the Big Three began. We are unlikely to ever experience such a thing again, and one can safely assume that any other player coming close to topping 400 weeks as the World No. 1 is a daunting task too.
The scary thing here is that Djokovic has not stopped yet, and could very well go on to surpass 450 weeks as the No. 1, which is equivalent to spending almost nine years as the world’s best player.