Slam Dunk
In January, the first of 2024’s Grand Slams, the Australian Open, was won by 22-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy after he beat Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals and Danill Medvedev in the final. It was Sinner’s first major title. The other semi-finalists, Medvedev and Alexander Zverev have only one slam between them.
Could this be the harbinger of a new era of tennis with new faces? It may be too early to tell.
For instance, India’s 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna got to world No. 1 after winning his first major doubles title at the 2024 Australian Open with Matthew Ebden, becoming the oldest first-time No. 1 ever!
And, at 36, the talented Djokovic is still ranked World No. 1 by the ATP. So to me, until he is unseated or retires, Djokovic may be the greatest singles player of all time.
Championing the best
Last September, I watched the US Open Men’s Tennis Final when the winner, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, equaled the record of 24 Major Championships (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) held by Margaret Court of Australia. I started wondering if Djokovic was the greatest singles player of all time and embarked on a somewhat foolhardy exercise comparing players of different eras. There are no easy answers to this.
It’s an era where the game has become more universal. Oldtimers like Bill Tilden, Donald Budge, or Helen Willis Moody did not face competition from players from so many countries, most notably from Eastern Europe. On the flip side, players from bygone days did not participate regularly in all the Majors as they do now. The great Bill Tilden never played in the Australian Open.
Changing surfaces
Then, there is a variety of court surfaces, each favoring some specific skill sets. Grass courts are fast and favor big serves and volleys. In contrast, the French Open clay courts at Roland Garros are slow and demand greater stamina. Over the years surfaces have changed – the Australian Open and US Open changed from grass to concrete surfaced hard courts.
Clearly, some players proved their mettle on a certain surface – the most striking is Rafael Nadal’s success at Roland Garros where he won 14 out of 22 championships.
And then the Open Era changed everything. Before 1968 major tournaments were limited to amateurs. Then it opened up to all. This significantly impacted men’s tennis. Players like Laver, Emerson, Hoad, and Rosewall lost a few valuable years of competition. Rosewall could not play amateur tennis from 1957 to 1967. I also discovered that other than the US Open, the 3 other Majors were not held from 1940 to 1944 due to the Second World War.
A Major decision
I decided to focus entirely on the 4 Majors and concentrate on players of more recent vintage, primarily from the Open Era. It would leave out some all-time greats like Rod Laver or Ken Rosewall, and, from an earlier era, Bill Tilden, and Donald Budge, the first Grand Slam winner. During a 5-year run from 1934 to 1938 Budge won 6 major titles consecutively from 1937 to 1938. I rated Wimbledon and the US Open at a higher level than the Australia and the French Opens, due to their consistently high level of universal participation.
| Winners of Singles Titles in Major Championships | ||||||
| Men | ||||||
| Australian | French | Wimbledon | US Open | Total Wins | Runners Up | |
| Novak Djokovic | 10 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 24 | 12 |
| Rafael Nadal | 2 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 22 | 8 |
| Roger Federer | 6 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 20 | 11 |
| Pete Sampras | 2 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 4 |
| Roy Emerson | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 3 |
| Rod Laver** | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 5 |
| B. Borg | 0 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 5 |
| Bill Tilden * | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 5 |
| Ken Rosewall** | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 7 |
| Women | ||||||
| Margaret Court | 11 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 24 | 5 |
| Serena Williams | 7 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 23 | 10 |
| Steffi Graff | 4 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 22 | 7 |
| Helen Wills Moody* | 4 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 19 | 3 |
| Chris Evert | 2 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 16 |
| Martina Navratilova | 2 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 18 | 14 |
| Billie Jean King | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 6 |
| · Old Timer ** Missed playing time due to turning professional | ||||||
Rating the best
Among the women, I would rate Serena Williams as the Greatest Women’s Singles Tennis Player of all time because she has a better all-round record compared to Margaret Court – 13 wins at Wimbledon and the US Open, and 10 Runner-up titles compared to Court’s 8 wins and 5 Runner-up titles. Margaret Court had 11 wins at the Australian Open, but could that be attributed to a dearth of competition in those early years, when many female players may avoided the long trip Down Under?
Close on Willam’s heels is Steffi Graf’s with 22 wins over the 4 surfaces including 12 Wimbledon and US Open titles. I also wonder if former Number 1 Monica Seles, who won 9 Grand Slam titles, might have risen in these rankings if not for the unfortunate courtside knife attack that derailed her career.
Back to the men….
Best Man or GOAT
In a discussion like this, one cannot ignore Roger Federer and his 20 Grand Slams, including 8 Wimbledons, 5 US Opens, and 11 runner-up titles. His injuries near the end of his career deprived him of possibly besting Djokovic’s record.
Rafael Nadal’s 22 Major wins is second only to Djokovic’s 24. However, 14 of his wins came at Roland Garros It indicates his superior stamina but reveals perhaps he was less adept at fast serve and volleys required for example, at the grass courts in Wimbledon.
Bjorn Borg who won 6 French titles on slow clay and 5 Wimbledon titles on fast grass never won the Australian or the US Open (where he reached the Finals on three occasions). Borg had a shorter, 10-year career compared to the rest and only participated in the Australian Open only once.
I do feel that Rod Laver’s achievements deserve some reexamination because he does have some legitimate claims to being the Greatest Men’s Singles Tennis Player. Laver won all four Majors a total of 11 times including two Grand Slams in 1963 and 1969. He missed turned professional between 1963 to 1967 losing 5 years of valuable playing time as professionals were barred from the Majors. Could he have won more titles in that period?
However, in Laver’s time, grass courts were the most common surface including Wimbledon, the Australian, and, the US Opens. Was the circuit not as competitive in Laver’s time as in later years, when top Eastern European players dominated the game?
From my ad hoc study, I have every reason to conclude that Novak Djokovic is the Greatest Men’s Singles Tennis Player of all time with a record 24 major titles won on all surfaces more than once. And he still probably has a few more years left.
By Hanson K Joseph – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61128625