ATP icon who played Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer explains who had ‘highest peak’
Many tennis fans and analysts agree that Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are the three greatest male players in the sport’s history, but the question of who achieved the highest peak level remains a much-debated topic.
Marcos Baghdatis is, arguably, better positioned than most to provide an answer, given that he played each of the Big Three in their respective primes.
The Cypriot was an Australian Open finalist, reached a career-high ranking of world No 8 and won four ATP singles titles during an illustrious career spanning from 2003 to 2019.
Baghdatis won one of his eight matches with Federer (between 2004 and 2010) and one of 10 matches against Nadal (between 2006 and 2017), while he lost all eight encounters with Djokovic (between 2007 and 2015).
He faced Federer twice in 2006, Nadal once in 2010 and Djokovic once in 2015 — which were arguably the best seasons of the legendary trio’s careers.
In an exclusive interview with Tennis365, Baghdatis claimed Djokovic reached a higher peak than Federer and Nadal as he argued the Serb was a more complete player.
“I think Djokovic, and why I say that [is] because he had less weaknesses,” assessed Baghdatis.
“I think maybe he volleys worse than Roger, but volleying is not a weakness. I’m talking on the baseline, the way he moved, the way he counter-punched, the way he attacked, the way he controlled the whole game — especially when I played against him. I would say that he was the best.
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“Roger, you know, you could see some weaknesses with his backhand. Rafa, the same a bit. But Djokovic, I think he’s more of a complete player. Maybe less better forehand than those two, but yeah, not too many weaknesses.”
Baghdatis’s victory over Federer was at the 2010 Indian Wells Masters, while his win over Nadal came at the Cincinnati Masters later that year.
The Cypriot labelled his triumphs against these two legends as the “biggest” wins of his career, before going on to highlight a less famous moment that is equally memorable to him.
“I think they are the biggest wins of my career, for sure,” Baghdatis said. “But I cannot say favourite or standout… The feeling of course is different because they were both No 1 in the world back then, so winning against the No 1 in the world, at the time, I think it’s a nice feeling.
“But I have some other great matches and great moments where I felt like, ‘that’s a great win’. Especially when you’re struggling, and I give you an example: when I fall back to 170 in the world, or whatever, I had to go play some Challengers.
“And I remember I won two Challengers in a row. And for me, winning 10 matches in a row was a big step because of all the injuries that I had back then.
“There were other moments where you were in a difficult situation with injuries, and I was out of the tour for two months, and then coming back and going and winning two Challengers in a row, back-to-back weeks, I think that’s also a great achievement, a great feeling. It depends on the moment, it depends on a lot of things.”
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