Tennis : Rafa Nadal wins his 19th slam and moves within 1 of the all-time record of 20 by Roger Federer. If you believe that the all-time greatest mantle depends on the amount of slams won, does this mean that Rafa Nadal is in position to take the crown. You can look at these and other statistics about the greatest tennis players at my visualisation below.
Roger Federer won his 20th Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2018. At that stage Rafael Nadal held 16 Grand Slams in total and it looked likely that Roger Federer would maintain the title of most amount of slams. Since then Nadal has won 3 slams and Federer has won none. Nadal still seems like a lock in to win the French Open each year, unless someone like Dominic Thiem can improve further and somehow become the only man to beat Nadal in a French Open final. Or will Nadal start to fade and not make it to the final?
Federer is 38 and cannot play forever. Nadal and Djokovic are at least 5 years younger and, if they emulate Federer, have many more years of playing and winning in front of them. And while they have stumbled in the past, 2019 has belonged to both Nadal and Djokovic.
But the young 23-year old Daniil Medvedev pushed Nadal hard at the 2019 US Open and perhaps next time can beat him(or anyone else) in a Slam Final. Thiem, Zverev, Tsipitas and others also show promise from the younger generation.
It should be a most interesting changing of the guard.
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