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LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 06: Roger Federer of Switzerland looks over at Novak Djokovic of Serbia as he walks past him during a change of ends during the Gentlemen’s Singles Final match on day thirteen of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 6, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
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LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 06: Roger Federer of Switzerland looks over at Novak Djokovic of Serbia as he walks past him during a change of ends during the Gentlemen’s Singles Final match on day thirteen of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 6, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
World No.1 Novak Djokovic lifted his 20th Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon Championships 2021. He is now tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the Grand Slam tally and thus, this has once again ignited the hot debate that who is the greatest player of all time.
In a recent group discussion on Racquet, there was a point when the interviewer asked who is the G.O.A.T in tennis. Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios was the first to react and highlighted that it is Roger Federer for him.
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“Roger!” exclaimed Kyrgios. However, he was interrupted in between by former World No.7 Mardy Fish. “But Novak could end up with like 25,” said Fish.
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Roger Federer of Team Europe and Nick Kyrgios of Team World poses for photo. Day 2 of the Laver Cup 2019 at Palexpo on September 21, 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland. The Laver Cup will see six players from the rest of the World competing against their counterparts from Europe. Team World is captained by John McEnroe and Team Europe is captained by Bjorn Borg. The tournament runs from September 20-22. (Photo by RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty Images)
Fish was clearly in support of Novak Djokovic as he feels that if the Serbian manages to end his career with more majors, he should be the G.O.A.T and not Federer. Interestingly, 12-time Grand Slam champion, Billie Jean King, was also a part of the discussion and put forward her opinion.
“You guys, Nadal and Federer took each other’s titles. Same with Chris and Martina. When you have Nadal and Federer playing against each other, it cuts out how many they could have won,” explained Jean King.
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Nick Kyrgios reveals why Roger Federer will always be ahead of Novak Djokovic
Kyrgios admitted that Djokovic will have better numbers than Federer by the time he will end his career. However, he believes that stats are not the only criteria to decide the greatest player of all time. He emphasized that Nole will never be able to match Federer in terms of his impact and the fanbase that he has and thus, Federer is ahead of Djokovic for him.
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Roger Federer of Switzerland shakes hands with Novak Djokovic of Serbia after Novak Djokovic winning his Men’s Singles final during Day thirteen of The Championships – Wimbledon 2019 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, England. (Photo by Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
“Okay, stats, you can’t surpass Novak, obviously. But, I think for the fanbase, for fans, for the whole sport in general, I think Federer,” added the Australian.
Roger Federer is currently not playing at the US Open 2021 and will undergo a knee surgery soon. Fans expect him to recover and return to the court as soon as possible. Will he able to win yet another Grand Slam title before taking retirement?
