Comparing Grand Slams won by men born in 1980s vs 1990s vs 2000s ft. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer
Men's Grand Slam singles champions have seen some interesting trends over the years. The Big Three, comprising Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, have dominated the Majors for the better part of the last two decades.
Since Federer won his first Major at the 2003 Wimbledon Championship and Djokovic clinched his last Major at the 2023 US Open, the Big Three have won an astounding 66 of the 81 Majors in between. Their dominance has skewed the numbers for the players born in the 1980s who have won 80 Grand Slam titles, 66 of which have been won by the legendary trio.
The other champions born in the 1980s are Andy Murray and Stan Wawarinka who have three titles each, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt who have two titles each, and the quartet of Marin Cilic, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Juan Martin del Potro who won one Major title each. This dominance from the Big Three curbed the progress of the players born in the 1990s.
Great 90s' players such as Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas only have two Majors to their name, courtesy of Thiem's triumph at the 2020 US Open and Medvedev's 2021 victory in New York. Tsitsipas has reached two Major finals, losing both to Novak Djokovic. Barring the one title, Medvedev has reached five other Major finals, losing twice to Nadal and Djokovic.
Thiem reached another Major final at the 2020 Australian Open as well, but was denied by Djokovic.
Players born in the 2000s have already gone ahead of players born in the 1990s in Grand Slam wins
The most interesting fact about men's singles champions at the Grand Slams is that players born in the 2000s already have more Grand Slams to their name, as compared to players born in the 1990s. The likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have a combined tally of seven Major titles between them.
Alcaraz has won all the Majors, barring the Australian Open, whereas Sinner has won the last three hard-court Majors. The likes of Alexander Zverev, who has reached three Grand Slam finals, lost two of those matches to the duo of Alcaraz and Sinner. Medvedev has also lost a Major final against Sinner at the Australian Open last year.
Sinner and Alcaraz split the four Majors between themselves last year, ending the Big Three dominance. It also ended the long streak of at least one member of the Big Three winning a Major in a year since 2003.