Who’s the greatest male tennis player of all time?

After the French Open, there are two more Grand Slams to go this year — and the debate rages. But no, we will never know, even as the question allows us to linger over the careers of these great players

Narratives are a sport’s lifeblood. They shape a fan’s connect to the game, provide a hook for his or her obsessions, sustain the deep emotional investment and create space to set out stakes well ahead of time. If Lionel Messi can lead Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar this December, he will be a greater footballer than the late Diego Maradona.

But narratives are also fickle, self-serving and often pre-ordained. They are neither objective nor fully quantifiable and do not provide room for luck, chance and risk. They are more a supporter’s flight of fancy to overcome sporting uncertainty. If Gonzalo Higuain had buried the gilt-edged chance in the 2014 World Cup final against Germany, Messi would already be a greater footballer than Maradona.

In tennis, the pet narrative of this generation’s fans is to christen one among Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as the greatest male singles player of all-time. After all, this is an era unlike any other in men’s tennis history. Starting from the 2005 French Open, the trio has dominated to corner 57 of the 67 Grand Slam tournaments, giving credence to the argument that the greatest has to be one among them.

They occupy the top three positions for most Grand Slam match-wins, with each of them recording over 300 victories, and they are also in the top-five for most ATP tour titles won. Hence, the desire is to build a historical time machine, compare statistics among the three and also with yesteryear champions like Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras and separate the greatest from the great.

It has simmered ever since Nadal equalled Federer’s then record of 20 Majors by winning the 2020 French Open, nearly bubbled over when Djokovic came within a match of winning his 21st Grand Slam title in New York last year and exploded in Australia earlier this season when Nadal claimed his 21st. With three more Slams (including the ongoing French Open) still in play in 2022, and the trio still active, the talk is unlikely to die anytime soon.

But comparisons within the contemporary and between the contemporary and the historical come with their own pitfalls. Records are for sure indicative, but shorn of context and perspective, they are often misleading. For one, there isn’t an even field for comparison. If Grand Slam titles won is the lone measure of greatness, how does one square with the fact that the great Pancho Gonzales was denied the opportunity to even compete in them (from 1950 to 1967) because he had turned professional in what was an amateur sport until the Open Era began  in 1968?

Jimmy Connors, an eight-time Slam winner and former World No.1, did not participate at Roland-Garros from 1974 to 1978 – his peak years – after he was banned from the 1974 edition because of his association with the World Team Tennis, a professional league started by Billie Jean King. That year, Connors won the other three Slams. Fellow top players also routinely skipped the Australian Open, which was held at the end of the year until 1985 than in the coveted start-of-the-season slot it occupies today.