5 amazing similarities between the careers of Federer and Djokovic
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic form two-thirds of men's tennis' famed Big-3 trifecta, the other third being Rafael Nadal.
Among a plethora of records created by Federer and Djokovic during the course of their respective careers, a few prominent ones include the duo's all-time leading Grand Slam match win tallies (Federer-357, Djokovic-280), most hardcourt titles (Federer-71, Djokovic-57), and most hardcourt Grand Slam titles (Federer-11, Djokovic-10).
The duo comprise an exclusive set of only two players to have won the Indian Wells-Miami double (winning the first two Masters 1000 titles on the calendar in the same season) at least thrice, and are two of only five players in the Open Era to have won the career Grand Slam (the feat of winning all four Grand Slam tournaments during the course of one's career).
With six and five titles respectively at the ATP Finals, Federer and Djokovic are also two of the most successful players at the season-ending tournament.
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On that note, let us have a look at five amazing similarities between the careers of two of the most successful players to have ever played the sport:
#1 Each player won the career Grand Slam at the French Open in their respective 4th finals
Federer had his first shot at a career Grand Slam at the 2006 French Open, where he suffered his first defeat in a Slam final in eight attempts. The next two opportunities for the Swiss maestro also arrived in the next two years in the Paris final but on each occasion, like the first, Rafael Nadal stood in the way.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion finally broke through for his maiden Roland Garros title in 2009 by beating Nadal's fourth round conqueror Robin Soderling in straight sets in the final. It made Federer only the 3rd player in the Open Era - Rod Laver (1969) and Andre Agassi (1999) being the others - to complete the career Grand Slam.
Djokovic arrived at his first Roland Garros final in 2012, where Nadal thwarted the Serb. The next year, Djokovic squandered a break in the fifth set of their semifinal before going down to the Spaniard. In 2014, Djokovic reached his second Roland Garros final but failed to overcome Nadal in the title match. The year after that, Djokovic had his first Roland Garros win over Nadal in seven matches but fell to Stan Wawrinka in the final.
The Serb was successful in his fourth final though, beating Andy Murray in a four-set match to become the fifth player in the Open Era to win the career Grand Slam and the first since Rod Laver (1969) to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
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