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Thankfully, we don’t need to imagine a world without living tennis legends Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. To do so is probably pointless, maybe even a little ridiculous, but bear with us — it’s going to be fun.
Given the stranglehold they’ve held on men’s tennis for the past 20 years, it’s fascinating to think about what things might look like had these three immortals of the sport not been around.
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Australian Nick Kyrgios became the latest victim of a tennis golden age that will never be repeated when Djokovic denied him a maiden grand slam title in the Wimbledon final.
Since Federer won the first of his 20 major titles at Wimbledon in 2003 he, Djokovic and Nadal have claimed an utterly-staggering 63 of the 76 major tournaments played.
Winning a grand slam is hard — really hard — in any era. Doing so in the shadow of arguably the three greatest male players to wield a racquet has proved the rarest of feats. In that sense tennis’ golden age has also been one of hard luck for a crop of brilliant players who, at any other time in history, would likely be finishing their careers with many more majors.
Only Andy Murray (3) and Stan Wawrinka (3) have managed to join the Big 3 in winning multiple majors since Federer won his first.
Unsurprisingly, they are the big winners when you crunch the numbers on what might’ve been in a sans-Federer/Nadal/Djokovic universe.
We awarded major titles to any slam finalists who fell to one of the GOATs, or the highest-ranked semi-finalist when either of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal faced each other in finals.
Murray emerges as the clear head of the remaining pack and could have, in theory, added another whopping 14 slams to his tally and finished clear of Pete Sampras (14) on the all-time list. If it weren’t for these three pesky GOATs Murray might well have been, well, the GOAT.
Wawrinka’s achievement of banking three majors in this era is perhaps underappreciated and in another he’d likely be pushing all-time great status. Andy Roddick will likely be having life-long nightmares about Federer, losing to him in four slam finals.
Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas might each have bags of multiple majors already had it not been for the legends’ remarkable longevity while the Big 3 can also be blamed for Australia’s 20-year men’s singles drought, with Hewitt denied a third career slam by Federer at the 2004 US Open and Mark Philippoussis, and now Kyrgios, other runners-up.
Can you imagine a bizarro world where Mikhail Youzhny, Richard Gasquet and Mariano Puerta are slam champions? Where Nikolay Davydenko, Marcos Baghdatis and and Kevin Anderson are multiple major winners. OK, maybe not, but it’s been fun, right?
FANTASY GRAND SLAM CHAMPIONS, WITHOUT THE BIG 3
Since Roger Federer’s 2003 win at Wimbledon
2003: Wimbledon – Mark Phillippoussis, US Open – Andy Roddick*
2004: Australian Open – Marat Safin, French Open – Gaston Gaudio*, Wimbledon – Andy Roddick, US Open – Lleyton Hewitt
2005: Australian Open – Marat Safin*, French Open – Mariano Puerta, Wimbledon – Andy Roddick, US Open – Andre Agassi
2006: Australian Open – Marcos Baghdatis, French Open – David Nalbandian, Wimbledon – Marcos Baghdatis, US Open – Andy Roddick
2007: Australian Open – Fernando Gonzalez, French Open – Nikolay Davydenko, Wimbledon – Richard Gasquet, US Open – Nikolay Davydenko
2008: Australian Open – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, French Open – Gael Monfils, Wimbledon – Marat Safin , US Open – Andy Murray
2009: Australian Open – Andy Roddick, French Open – Robin Söderling, Wimbledon – Andy Roddick, US Open – Juan Martín del Potro*
2010: Australian Open – Andy Murray, French Open – Robin Söderling, Wimbledon – Tomas Berdych, US Open – Mikhail Youzhny
2011: Australian Open – Andy Murray, French Open – Andy Murray, Wimbledon – Andy Murray, US Open – Andy Murray
2012: Australian Open – Andy Murray, French Open – David Ferrer, Wimbledon – Andy Murray, US Open – Andy Murray*
2013: Australian Open – Andy Murray, French Open – David Ferrer, Wimbledon – Andy Murray*, US Open – Stanislas Wawrinka
2014: Australian Open – Stan Wawrinka*, French Open – Andy Murray, Wimbledon – Milos Raonic, US Open – Marin Cilic*
2015: Australian Open – Andy Murray, French Open – Stan Wawrinka*, Wimbledon – Andy Murray, US Open – Stan Wawrinka
2016: Australian Open – Andy Murray, French Open – Andy Murray, Wimbledon – Andy Murray*, US Open – Stan Wawrinka*
2017: Australian Open – Stan Wawrinka, French Open – Stan Wawrinka, Wimbledon – Marin Cilic, US Open – Kevin Anderson
2018: Australian Open – Marin Cilic, French Open – Dominic Thiem, Wimbledon – Kevin Anderson, US Open – Juan Martín del Potro
2019: Australian Open – Stefanos Tsitsipas , French Open – Dominic Thiem, Wimbledon – Roberto Bautista Agut, US Open – Daniil Medvedev
2020: Australian Open – Dominic Thiem, French Open – Stefanos Tsitsipas, Wimbledon – N/A, US Open – Dominic Thiem*
2021: Australian Open – Daniil Medvedev, French Open – Stefanos Tsitsipas, Wimbledon – Matteo Berrettini, US Open – Daniil Medvedev*
2022: Australian Open – Daniil Medvedev, French Open – Casper Ruud, Wimbledon – Nick Kyrgios
*denotes actual champion
WHAT PAST 20 YEARS MAJORS COUNT WOULD LOOK LIKE
Andy Murray 17
Stan Wawrinka 7
Andy Roddick 6
Dominic Thiem 4
Daniil Medvedev 4
Marin Cilic 3
Stefanos Tsitsipas 3
Marat Safin 3
Marcos Baghdatis 2
Nikolay Davydenko 2
Robin Soderling 2
Juan Martin del Potro 2
David Ferrer 2
Kevin Anderson 2
Mark Philippoussis 1
Gaston Gaudio 1
Lleyton Hewitt 1
Andre Agassi 1
Mariano Puerta 1
David Nalbandian 1
Fernando Gonzalez 1
Mikhail Youzhny 1
Gael Monfils 1
Tomas Berdych 1
Richard Gasquet 1
Milos Raonic 1
Jo Wilfried Tsonga 1
Robert Bautista-Agut 1
Casper Ruud 1
Matteo Berrettini 1
Nick Kyrgios 1
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