Roger Federer was among the first of the ‘Big Three’ in men’s tennis in the 2000s to set incredible benchmarks for the two decades that followed. The Swiss maestro has some remarkable records which stand to date. However, if there is one man who is the closest to breaching those, it is Novak Djokovic.
Over the years, Federer has been famously referred to by the media and the tennis community, as the ‘King of Grass’. This is due to the fact that he has won 8 out of his 20 Grand Slams at the Wimbledon Championships itself, which is the most for any player in men’s singles. However, it is worth noting that Djokovic is not far behind either, winning 7 out of his 23 Grand Slams so far at SW19, making him tied as the second-most successful player at the moment with the legendary Pete Sampras.
Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic on grass? Mardy Fish changes his opinion
Former American tennis star and top 10 player, Mardy Fish has been a long-time supporter of Roger Federer. In fact, recently Fish hailed Federer by commenting that when he played during the 2005-2006 season, he was virtually unstoppable. In their 9 meetings on the ATP Tour, Fish could only beat Federer once, which was at Indian Wells in 2008.
In the Netflix documentary ‘Break Point‘, Fish conceded that Federer in his prime made life so difficult for opponents like him that he suffered from mental health issues due to such losses. He shared his experience of playing against him on one of Federer’s favorite venues, Halle where he has also won a record 8 titles.
“Roger had this aura and invincibility about him, where you just could never breathe, cause he could turn it like that.. Boom. Point’s over.
“We played in the final of 2004 in Halle. Roger went up 6-0, 3-0, in, like, 25 minutes. I’m like, unbelievable. This guy’s gonna beat me 6-0, 6-0, in the finals of a tournament”
“I think he probably felt bad for all of the people that had paid money to come watch, and I’m still, to this day, convinced, that he prolonged the match a little bit longer so it was 6-0, 6-3. He made it, like an hour”.
However, taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Fish surprised a large part of the tennis community by directly calling Novak Djokovic the greatest grass-court player of all time.
This record is something even Roger Federer doesn’t have as indeed, the last time Novak Djokovic lost at the iconic Centre Court was to Andy Murray 10 years ago. Although Djokovic was beaten in earlier rounds in 2016 and 2017, it was on different courts. However, the 2010s still saw Djokovic winning the most Wimbledon titles, i.e. 5 across 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019 respectively. Andy Murray and Roger Federer had two each to their name in that decade, while Rafael Nadal kickstarted the decade with his 2010 win.
Novak Djokovic paves his own path for grass excellence
Despite Fish having some substance in his claim, the tennis community is generally divided about it. One section widely considers Roger Federer as the trailblazer of grass court play, having also made it to the Finals in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019 with most of those years being when he crossed the age of 30.
To his credit, Novak Djokovic has lost only 1 Wimbledon final he has played in out of 6. Yet his consistency on grass only improved from 2018, as he has been unbeaten at the competition ever since. Roger Federer has won a whopping 105 matches at SW19, which is currently 17 more than Novak Djokovic. So should the Serbian have to surpass that tally, he would need to win another 2 Wimbledon titles.
Perhaps, the only seemingly major factor in Roger Federer’s favour when it comes to superiority on grass is his consistency in grass tournaments apart from Wimbledon, which Djokovic has largely tried to avoid in his career. In 2008 (Queen’s), 2009 (Halle) and 2018 (Eastbourne), he made the finals of those competitions, while only winning in 2017 in Eastbourne.
Coming back to the Wimbledon 2023 Championships, should Djokovic defend his title again, he would match Federer’s record of winning the title across 5 consecutive years. Roger Federer achieved this monumental feat between 2003-2007, with virtually no player challenging him along the way. The story could be similar for Novak Djokovic, who is also looking for a record 8th Wimbledon title to tie with Federer. The only difference being that the Serbian would achieve these feats at an older age.
