Lendl: Final Grand Slam tally should decide ‘Big Three’ GOAT debate

Eight-time Grand Slam winner Ivan Lendl said whoever ends up winning the most majors among the “Big Three” of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic should be considered the greatest male tennis player of the Open era.

The “GOAT” (greatest of all time) debate in men’s tennis has divided opinions for a decade and remains a hot topic as the trio continue to dominate the field, sharing the last 13 majors among them.

Federer, who will be 39 in August, leads the race with 20 Grand Slam singles titles, with Spaniard Nadal close on his heels with 19.

Reigning world No. 1 Djokovic is three behind the Swiss with 17 majors under his belt and is the youngest of the trio – at 32 he is a year younger than Nadal.

Pundits and fans have debated various factors for determining the greatness of a player: number of weeks at No. 1 ranking, overall tally of titles, Grand Slam count or head-to-head record.

“It’s between Novak, Rafa and Roger on who ends up with the most majors and who is considered the best of all time in the Open-era,” Lendl told Australia’s Channel Nine television in an interview posted on Friday, adding that he considers Australian Rod Laver the best in the pre-Open era.

“All you can say at the moment is that Roger is leading the race – the race has not been finished. When they retire the race will be finished and you will be able to judge,” he said. “The race is far from over.

“You have to go with Roger right now, but I’m not closing the book on that,” Lendl added. As Djokovic and Nadal are younger and have longer to play, “that is going to be one hell of a race to follow.”

Djokovic has often been asked his thoughts on the overwhelming support for Federer and Nadal from the crowd when he locks horns with them on the tennis court.

While the Serb says he does not feel antagonized by the lack of crowd support, Lendl said the affection of the public should not be a deciding factor.

“Who is the most popular is one thing but who is the greatest is not being judged by popularity,” said the Czech-born Lendl, who has coached Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev in past.

ATP chief not ruling out 2020 return

Despite the growing possibility of a total wipeout of professional tennis this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, ATP Tour chief Andrea Gaudenzi is refusing to give up on 2020 just yet.

The tennis season was suspended in early March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the hiatus will continue at least until mid-July with many countries in lockdown to contain the virus.

Wimbledon has been canceled and the French Open postponed from its usual May start to September, while the status of the US Open, scheduled to take place in late August, is still unclear.

Many people, including Nadal, have voiced doubts about whether the sport can return in 2020 because players would need to travel around the world to compete in tournaments.

“It would be unwise to call it quits now,” said Gaudenzi. “Nobody knows what will happen, we want to keep an optimistic overview.

“Obviously, there could be a subset of options, which is playing with closed gates or deciding how to deal with travel restrictions. But we have not made these decisions so far because they are all hypothetical scenarios.”

The Tour is working on a time frame of six to eight weeks to decide on tournaments.

“We have set a deadline of May 15 for the tournaments in July, post Wimbledon,” said the Italian, who reached a career-high singles ranking of 18. “And June 1 for the tournaments in August.

“So we are, in principle, dealing it on I would say six to eight weeks in advance in time for making a decision. Longer than that, it would be foolish to make decisions in my opinion.”

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is in charge of the US Open, scheduled to run from August 31-September 13 on the hardcourts of New York.

“Their announcement might be a little bit later, we don’t know,” Gaudenzi said. “Once we get to the beginning of June, we will probably know more about the US summer.”

While professional soccer leagues around Europe are gearing up for a return to action, international travel restrictions make it tougher for tennis to restart.

“You can have an estimate that it’s going to be fairly difficult and unlikely that all these countries will align to one single policy relating to travel restrictions,” Gaudenzi said.

“Australia today for example is probably in a completely different phase than the United Kingdom. You look at Sweden, they have taken a completely different approach. So we could play a tournament in Sweden probably today.

But can we travel 100 players to Sweden today? No. So that’s the challenge.”

The ATP and the WTA, which runs the women’s circuit, recently joined forces with the International Tennis Federation and the boards of the four Grand Slam tournaments to raise over $6 million to help lower-level players affected by the shutdown.

Federer recently called for a merger between the governing bodies, and both Gaudenzi and his WTA counterpart Steve Simon welcomed the suggestion.

“It was a great effort,” said Gaudenzi, who took over as ATP chairman in January. “I hope it’s just the beginning of a future productive collaboration which is much needed in our sport.

“I am very pleased with the outcome. I think it’s a great message, very healthy that everybody joined in to help the players who needed the most in this very difficult time.”

Gaudenzi hoped more money would come in for the relief program, which targets about 800 singles and doubles players on the men’s and women’s tours.

“The question is nobody knows how long it will last,” the 46-year-old said. “If we can go back to play fairly soon I think we are going to be okay. But if it lasts for long, it will get difficult because the money will run out.” (Reuters)