Tennis GOAT: Who will finish top of the class of tennis’ Big 3, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic

Magnificent Rafael Nadal has become the most successful tennis player of all time but the greatest? Not yet. It’s too early to call him the greatest because, while the field has turned for home and heads are bobbing, the race is too tight and, most importantly, it’s not over. Nadal, who won his 21st grand slam title with the Australian Open, won’t win the argument of the best of all time unless he finishes with more majors than his two great rivals, Federer and Novak Djokovic who both have 20. When 40-year-old Federer retires his massive global fan base may declare he was the greatest of all time because, as Muhammad Ali famously taught us, being The Greatest is more than simple numbers. Even if Federer is slightly behind the other two on the slam tally they may argue his imprint on the game was potent and peerless. A supreme stylist who put the core in decorum and really should have played in a dinner suit, Federer was also the ageless man who won his first title 20 years ago. He won everywhere and everything and charmed the world as he did so. But if we are going to be ruthless with the numbers Djokovic is the man Nadal must conquer, particularly as both are much younger than Federer and may move a couple more slams ahead of him before their time is up. And because they all played in the same era, how can most Slams not be a definitive guide of the best of the best when the smoke clears? Just being level with Djokovic on the Slam tally is not enough. Nadal needs to stay ahead in the Slam race because Djokovic — why is this sentence so hard to type? — has Nadal and Federer matched in most areas. There is a saying in sport that when you compare modest players you look at their highlights but when you compare the greats you separate them by asking what didn’t they do. What were their soft spots? Significantly, though 13 of his 21 slam wins have come at the French Open, Nadal won the three other majors at least twice. So while he is a king on clay it cannot be said that he was anything less than a major threat on all surfaces so his soft spots were not that soft at all. It’s slightly unfair to mark Nadal down on the basis of his French Open bias because all three had their favourite haunts and leaner pastures, Djokovic winning nine Australian Opens and just two French Opens and Federer nine Wimbledon’s and a solitary French title in 2009. So then we go man to man. Nadal leads Federer 24-16 overall and 6-3 in grand slam finals while Djokovic leads Federer 27-23 in career clashes. Here’s where it gets interesting … Djokovic versus Nadal. Djokovic leads Nadal 30-28 overall and it’s 4-4 in grand slam finals. Toss a coin to split them and it would land on its edge. So we look even closer and deep dive into the fine detail and find that of the three matches Nadal has lost at the French Open since 2005 two were to Djokovic, who is 2-7 against Nadal in Paris compared to Federer’s 0-6. Pete Sampras last month declared Djokovic was “clearly’’ the best player of all time. If Nadal can stay ahead of him on the Grand Slam tally it will give millions of fans around the world to point to the scoreboard and say it ain’t so. Fingers crossed.