E-Paper
Nadal: The great, greatest of all time
No tennis player, no individual athlete is history — the list includes Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and Serena Williams from this century — can boast of a level of domination at an event such as Nadal’s
It’s easy when recounting sporting achievement to get lost in hyperbole. Every other new star is described as the “next big thing” after a season or two of domination, and terms such as “great”, “greatest”, and the uber-fashionable “greatest of all time”, or GOAT if you will, are thrown around a tad too soon, a tad too lightly. Conversely, a good sign of true sporting excellence is when, despite your best efforts, no matter how hard you try, it becomes impossible not to use degrees of greatness to describe an achievement or a phenomenon.
In keeping with this argument, let’s try a little test: On Sunday, Rafael Nadal won a record 22nd men’s singles Grand Slam title, taking a two-Slam lead over his rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. It was his 14th title on the red clay of Roland Garros in 18 attempts. He has never lost a final in Paris — his tally of French Open crowns is six more than Max Decugis’s (back when it was open only to French club members in the early 20th century) and eight more than Bjorn Borg’s. To put the link between tournament, surface and player in perspective, Federer has won eight Wimbledon titles in 22 attempts; and Djokovic has won the Australian Open nine times in 17 attempts. Nadal’s French Open win-loss record is 112-3 for a win percentage of 97%; Federer’s at Wimbledon is 105-14 for 88%; and Djokovic’s at Australian Open is 82-8 for a 91% success rate. Nadal was 19 when he won his first French title, and he turned 36 two days before he won his 14th. No tennis player, no individual athlete in history — the list includes Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and Serena Williams from this century — can boast of a level of domination that matches Nadal’s. So, is there any other way to say it? Great, greatest; perhaps of all time.
