A Statistical Comparison Between Federer, Nadal and Djokovic
With his victory against Federer in the Cincinnati 2018 final, Djokovic finally got his hands on the trophy and captured the only 1000 Masters Trophy that was missing from his trophy cabinet. He became the first man to complete the Golden Masters 1000. This incredible feat has never been achieved by Federer or Nadal. This has opened the doors for the discussion on who is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in tennis. There is no doubt that what Djokovic has achieved is simply outstanding. But is it enough for him to be considered as the GOAT?
Well, as an author you are not supposed to be biased. So the best way to resolve this debate of who the GOAT in Tennis is, is to look at the numbers. Because numbers never lie and after comparing the numbers the readers can decide themselves who they consider the greatest of all time.
There are a lot of angles when it comes to talking about being the very best in the business. Some might say that it's the Majors (Grand-Slams) that matters the most while others might argue that Masters 1000s have their own importance and cannot be ignored. Then there is the question of the surface as well. Some will view dominance on one surface as the pinnacle of achievement while others will be of the view that you need to perform well on all the surfaces. As I said earlier this discussion is very intricate and there are a lot of factors that you need to consider.
There are 4 types of tournaments in Tennis. They are the Grand Slam Tournaments also known as The Majors, The 1000 Masters Tournaments, The 500 Events and The 250 Events. Out of these 4 types, the first two are the important ones. (Also, apart from these 4 types, there is another tournament called the ATP World Tour Finals and it's played at the end of the season.
So let's look at the performance of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in the Grand Slams and the Masters 1000s.
Federer
A) Grand Slams:
Tournament Titles Win-Loss Record Win%
Australian Open 06 94-13 88%
French Open 01 65-16 80%
Wimbledon 08 95-12 89%
US Open 05 82-12 87%
Total 20 336-53 86%
B) Masters 1000 Tournaments:
Tournament Titles Win-Loss Record Win%
Indian Wells 05 62-12 84%
Miami 03 50-14 78%
Monte-Carlo 00 (4 Finals) 30-13 70%
Madrid 06 47-8 85%
Rome 00 (4 Finals) 32-16 67%
Rogers Cup 02 35-10 78%
Cincinnati 07 46-09 84%
Shanghai 03 36-10 78%
Paris 01 21-10 68%
Total 27 359-102 78%
Nadal:
A) Grand Slams:
Tournament Titles Win-Loss Record Win%
Australian Open 01 55-12 82%
French Open 11 86-02 97%
Wimbledon 02 48-11 81%
US Open 03 53-10 84%
Total 17 242-35 87%
B) Masters 1000 Tournaments:
Tournament Titles Win-Loss Record Win%
Indian Wells 03 50-10 83%
Miami 00(5 Finals) 40-12 77%
Monte-Carlo 11 68-04 94%
Madrid 05 47-08 85%
Rome 08 56-06 90%
Rogers Cup 04 34-08 81%
Cincinnati 01 22-11 67%
Shanghai 01 29-13 68%
Paris 00 (1 Final) 16-05 76%
Total 33 362-77 82%
Djokovic:
A) Grand Slams:
Tournament Titles Win-Loss Record Win%
Australian Open 06 61-08 88%
French Open 01 63-13 83%
Wimbledon 04 65-10 87%
US Open 02 62-10 86%
Total 13 251-41 86%
B) Masters 1000 Tournaments:
Tournament Titles Win-Loss Record Win%
Indian Wells 05 49-08 86%
Miami 06 42-06 88%
Monte-Carlo 02 32-10 76%
Madrid 02 24-08 75%
Rome 04 46-08 85%
Rogers Cup 04 37-07 84%
Cincinnati 01 32-11 74%
Shanghai 03 33-07 83%
Paris 04 28-07 80%
Total 31 323-72 82%
Federer has won the year-end ATP World Tour Finals 6 times, while Djokovic captured the same 5 times. Nadal though has not yet been able to win the prestigious year-end tournament.
Despite the fact that you would consider one of these players the GOAT, we are so fortunate to have been born in the era of these great champions. So who is the GOAT? Well, I am going to leave that to you readers. I have presented the stats here so it's entirely up to you what you perceive from those numbers.