Rafa Nadal’s Australian Open victory to bag an unprecedented 21st Grand Slam crown certainly strengthened his claim to being tennis’ Greatest Of All Time, or GOAT, as they call it these days.
He, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have won 61 titles between them, which works out to a dominance stretching just more than 15 years.
Some people are rating his come-from-behind victory over Daniil Medvedev on Sunday as is his greatest ever.
Sure, it was impressive, but I would list his 2008 Wimbledon win over Roger Federer as his finest moment and the best measure of his abilities. At the time he was considered a clay court specialist, but he toppled the king of grass in a scintillating five-setter with the final rubber going to 9-7. He still had to wait until 2010 before securing his career Grand Slam.
Statistics are central to debates around any sport’s GOAT, but people will decide their GOATs for reasons beyond statistical.
Federer, by comparison, won his only French Open in 2009 when he didn’t have to face Nadal.
Tennis fans have witnessed an incredible epoch in which only seven men have broken that three-way stranglehold on 11 occasions. Compare that to golf’s greatest rivalry between Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, who won 34 Major titles between them from 1958 to 1986.
Until Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, the last man to achieve a tennis career Grand Slam had been Andre Agassi in 1999, and the last before him had been Australian Rod Laver in 1969.
Great players like Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker won only three of four Grand Slam tournaments. Sampras, McEnroe, Connors and Becker couldn’t master clay, while Lendl failed on grass.
Another one who has ended up one short is Stan Wawrinka, with one triumph apiece at the Australian, French and US Opens. He’s in the same league as Lendl and co, a legend in any other era, but he’s been reduced to a footnote in the shadows of Nadal, Federer and Djokovic. That’s how dominant they have been.
And men’s tennis is not the only code to have produced GOATs in the 21st century. The women’s game gave us Serena Williams, athletics dished up Usain Bolt, golf Tiger Woods, F1 Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, football Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, cricket AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, gridiron Tom Brady.
Advancements in sports science and medicine, mixed with talent and better coaching techniques, are helping today’s athletes get fitter, stronger and better for longer.
Statistics are central to debates around any sport’s GOAT, but people will decide their GOATs for reasons beyond statistical. For example, Don Bradman has the highest batting average in cricket, but some might feel that De Villiers was better because of the way he faced bouncers.
If Federer and Djokovic fans don’t like Nadal, they’ll produce arguments why their favourite is the GOAT. One cannot make statistics the only factor, not even Nadal’s 21.
Each fan crowns their own GOAT.
Statistics can’t be debated, but here is where boxing struggles somewhat, because its statistics of wins, losses and draws are flawed.
Winners are often decided by three judges who, if anything, have proven unequivocally that there isn’t an objective way to score fights.
There was no question when Bolt won Olympic gold, or Nadal the Australian Open and so on.
In the US on Saturday night Thabiso Mchunu should have been crowned SA’s third WBC champion after he outboxed Junior Makabu, holder of the cruiserweight title.
One judge scored it for Mchunu, and two for Makabu.
Boxing has produced dodgy decisions in major fights. Even Muhammad Ali benefited from these, controversially being declared the winner in the third fight against Ken Norton in 1976.
Boxing has its GOAT contenders too, the most recent being Floyd Mayweather, though in my opinion he doesn’t match Sugar Ray Robinson in all-round skills, nor would he have gone unbeaten against the likes of Robert Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns.
Yes, Mayweather went unbeaten in his career of 50 wins and zero defeats, surpassing heavyweight Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 (though Marciano weighed in with 43 knockouts to Mayweather’s 27).
Perhaps the two judges who failed to appreciate Mchunu’s defensive skills on Saturday might have been able to ruin Mayweather’s unblemished record.
Many other sports don’t have that ambiguity when it comes to winning, and the frequency of controversy is far lower. The statistics are not tainted like boxing’s.
While these codes are raining new contenders who aspire to be reigning GOATs, fans should enjoy it.
Who knows how long this will last?
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