This era of tennis is the greatest amongst all the sports the mankind has ever seen..

    When Nadal lifted the French Open title for a record 12th time a couple of weeks back, he moved closer to Roger Federer's all time tally of 20 grand slams. Djokovic bowed out of the tournament in the semi finals when the super talented Dominic Thiem beat him in a 5-set epic. Federer was eliminated by the eventual champion in the same round as Novak. Now Nadal sits just two majors behind Federer and Djokovic is three away from matching Nadal. These three may not necessarily be the most influential ones but are surely the most successful ones in the history of tennis.
     When we talk about success in any sport, we talk about eras. They say that we can not and should not compare players from different eras but this trio of Federer-Nadal-Djokovic is forcing us to compare them with the previous generations and label them the best. I don't think there has been a more successful bunch of players in a particular sport that has been so many miles ahead of previous eras. If Clive Lloyd's West Indies in 60s-80s was great and dominant, nobody can argue that Australians led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting were any lesser and we all know about Bradman's invincibles, don't we? All these three teams achieved tremendous success in their time and we can not unanimously name one team as the greatest ever. Football fans have seen generations after generations playing high quality football. World has seen many German and Brazilian teams succeed greatly but they have been matched equally by Spanish, Italians, Argentinians and dare I say the Dutch as well! If Isiah, Mchale, Kareem dominated the 80's, MJ, Pippen, Rodman, Hakeem were no lesser and we all know what LeBron and Stephen Curry have dished out. These are probably the three most watched sports in India apart from tennis and I don't think we can draw any conclusion as to which generation was the best or the greatest as we might say.
    What about Tennis? Has tennis got any history? Yes it has, a prolonged one! Let's go through some of the great players over the years who played against each other in the same era. The first real superstars of the game in the open era were without doubt, Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors. Rod Laver was probably the greatest of the three as he was way ahead of his time. He won 11 grand slam singles titles before and during the open era. He remains the only man to win all four grand slam titles in a calendar year in the open era. He achieved the unprecedented feet in 1969. Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors were clearly less successful when compared to Rod Laver and both never won the French Open but two of them had a tremendous impact on tennis in general in the United States. Being a black American, Arthur Ashe's impact was even greater at the time. Later in the 70s and 80s, arrived another trio which would go on and mesmerize the world by some superlative display of tennis. Yes, I am talking about Borg-McEnroe-Becker. They set the tennis world on fire with some exciting tennis. Though none of them could complete a career slam, all of them were in each other's face all the time. Bjorn Borg neither won the Australian open nor the US Open but he was dominant on Clay as well as grass. He is the only player in the open era to win the double of French open and Wimbledon in three consecutive years. McEnroe failed to win the Australian open and French open but his rivalry win Borg will never be forgotten. Two completely different characters, two different playing styles, two different physics and that made the rivalry even intriguing. Boris becker and Jon McEnroe were probably similar in almost an 'into your face' approach but Borg was very different, always cool, calm and collective. Borg and McEnroe only ever met in grand Slams four times but their clashes even outside of grand slam tournaments were great to watch. As Borg and McEnroe were leaving the centerstage, in came a certain American in the name of Pete Sampras. Sampras would go on win more than a dozen grand slams yet not a single French Open in an era of so many great tennis players, one of them was another American, Andre Agassi. Agassi won every grand slam at least once while Sampras dominated Wimbledon and the US Open at in the late 90s. After 7 Wimbledon championships, 5 US Open titles and a total of 14 grand slams, he had sealed a place in the history books. Ones who watched Sampras played in his prime still say he is the best they ever witnessed. By the time he retired, he was started to be called the greatest tennis player of all time. 14 grand slams was an unprecedented feet and was unlikely to be broken in near future but Roger Federer quickly announced himself on the stage and actually made everyone look at him. Between 2003 - 2008, Federer won every grand slam multiple times but the French Open. By the end of 2008, he already had a record equalling 14 grand slams in his kitty at the age of 26. Clearly there was a lot of tennis left in him and it was clear that he was going to break Sampras' record sooner rather than later and how fitting it was for him to lift the Roland Garros at last as his 15th grand slam. Rafael Nadal was becoming a force to reckon with at the same time. He had beaten Federer in 3 finals in Paris and lost to the same man twice at Wimbledon. Finally he broke the jinx as Nadal beat Federer in Wimbledon 2008 to deny him a 6th straight Wimbledon title. Everyone started to talk about this rivalry between Federer and Nadal but very few noticed a Serbian called Novak Djokovic who was making a name of himself. Nadal won all the grand Slams at least once before 2010 and it was Djokovic's turn to start winning the silverware. He had already won the Australian open in 2008 but it was in 2011 where he really started to stamp his class all over. He won three grand slams in 2011 with the exception of French open. When he completed the career slam by winning the French Open in 2016, he held all the four grand slams. He has gone on to win 15 grand slams in total till date. By the end of 2017 when he had the injury for the best part of 6 months, everyone thought that it might be the end of Djokovic but he has only come back stronger. He is probably the best of the big 3 right now.
    As it stands, Federer with 20, Nadal with 18 and Djokovic with 15, these three are number one-two-three on the all time list, all playing in the same era. Apart from the stats, watching them for the past decade or decade and a half has been an absolute treat. All three of them are different. Federer is the most talented and gifted of the three. Everything he does is so easy on the eye and that is why we want to bang our heads on the walls when he has a bad day. Nadal is all brute power, isn't it? Nadal probably has the weakest first serve but he has an outrageously powerful forehand and a very controlled backhand. Djokovic is very different from those two. He is not the most talented but he has made himself the player he is. A good serve, strong backhand, a very good backhand and almost a never ending stamina, Djokovic might be the most complete player to have ever played the game.
    Federer-Nadal was probably the best rivalry till 2010 but ever since Nadal and Djokovic have faced off against each other in big matches, it has been without doubt the greatest rivalry tennis has ever had. Djokovic vs Federer is underrated a lot but it still holds great significance in tennis history. Make no mistake about it, there have been some incredibly good tennis players in the same era such as Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Leyton Hewitt, Tommy Haas and so many of them. Andy Roddick was my personal favourite after Federer but the fact that nobody even talks about them shows how good Federer-Nadal-Djokovic have been. Way ahead of their time, the 'big 3' are probably the greatest trio to have ever graced the game of tennis and I don't think there is one pair or another trio from another era that can challenge them, not on the basis of impact and definitely not with numbers.