By: Hyde Moua

“The Big Three” tennis players of all time are Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. The term “The Big Three” is a common term referring to Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal which began in 2003 after the Wimbledon Championships. This trio has dominated the men’s singles, winning up to 83% of the male Grand Slam titles. They have kept the top 3 positions of the male ATP rankings eight times in a row from 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2018, and 2019.

Roger Federer was born in Switzerland in 1981. According to an article on Shecodes.io “He is widely regarded as the best tennis player of all time and the king of grass courts”, and has had a remarkable career. He has won 20 men’s singles Grand Slam titles, and has reached each major grand slam at least 5 times. He was the number 1 player from 2004 – 2008, with a world record of being the number 1 tennis player for around 310 weeks. Unfortunately, he retired in the year 2022.

Rafael Nadal was born in Spain and is the current number 652 tennis player. As mentioned on Shecodes.io “He is regarded as the king of clay courts and one of the best tennis competitors of all time”. He has had a total of 22 men’s singles Grand Slam titles, with a total of 13 of them being the French Open championships. Rafael Nadal is the only left-handed member of “The Big Three”. He also has an Olympic gold medal in both men’s singles and doubles. Rafael Nadal is planning to have the 2024 season as his final season and will retire after the 2024 season which will end around September.

Novak Djokovic was born in Serbia and is the current number 1 men’s singles player. Shecodes.io says that “He is regarded as one of the greatest professional tennis players ever and the king of hard courts“. He has won a total of 24 Grand Slam titles, which include an all-time record of 8 Australian Open titles. He is also the ONLY tennis player to complete the career of the Gold Masters (Gold Masters is when a player wins all 9 Masters 1000 titles).

Personally, of the three, Roger Federer is my favorite. He’s the person that changed tennis in the early 2000s by playing at a much higher level which forced the others to play better to compete.