With Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic sharing 12 Wimbledon titles among them, it’s not a surprise that they are the most-watched and talked-about players at the All England Club. And the revered trio has made a fantastic debut at the ongoing 2017 Wimbledon Championships with each achieving personal milestones, much to the delight of their large legion of fans.
Roger Federer
Roger Federer and records are inextricably linked to each other. Every time the man steps on the pristine grass of SW19, you expect him to add some more records to his burgeoning tally.
The Swiss did not disappoint tennis watchers all around the globe even if he played a truncated match at Centre Court thanks to Alexandr Dolgopolov’s retirement due to ankle problem, trailing 3-6, 0-3.
In those 43 minutes of effortless mastery over the Ukrainian, the seven-time champion notched up a humongous 85th Wimbledon win, amassed over 16 years. And in the process, he overtook eight-time Grand Slam winner Jimmy Connors’ 84. He now sits alone on the throne of the Open Era match win leader at The Championships.
And the 18-time Major winner did not stop there.
He also became the third man to enter the 10, 000 ace club with the 10 aces that he thundered against Dolgopolov, joining Croats Goran Ivanisevic and Ivo Karlovic who are the only other players to have crossed that major milestone since 1991.
Wait, catch your breath for that is not all. Federer also matched Frenchman Fabrice Santoro’s 70 Grand Slam appearances.
This man simply never gets tired of creating records, isn’t it?
Rafael Nadal
If Federer is cracking records of all sorts, can his greatest competitor and friend Rafael Nadal be far behind? The Spaniard, who came to Wimbledon fresh from accomplishing ‘La Decima’ on the terre battue of Roland Garros, played a day earlier than Federer and displayed his usual swagger in a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 rout of John Millman.
It was the 44th win of the season for the World No. 2 and a staggering 850th of his glorious career that made him just the seventh player to surpass that magic number after Connors, Federer, Ivan Lendl, Guillermo Vilas, John McEnroe and Andre Agassi.
This was Nadal’s first win on the slick surface since a shock second round defeat to Dustin Brown at The Championships two years ago. If he can continue the impeccable form that was on show on Monday, five more wins at Wimbledon will take him back to the pinnacle of the world rankings again.
Novak Djokovic
Much like Federer, Djokovic too did not have a long day in his 2017 debut. The Serb began his quest for a fourth Wimbledon crown, having had his confidence bolstered by the Eastbourne title that he clinched just a few days back.
A light workout was what he got as a left leg injury forced his opponent, Martin Klizan to retire when the scoreboard showed 6-3, 2-0 in Djokovic’s favour.
But with that, he earned another feat that he should be proud of. Under the watchful eyes of fellow Career Slammer Andre Agassi and former Wimbledon semi-finalist Mario Ancic, the 12-time Major winner shot off into the second place in the list of most Grand Slam victories with 234, overhauling Connors’ 233.
Only Federer is ahead of him with 315 wins.
That’s surely a very inspiring start for the World No. 4 who is desperately trying to get back his old, imperious self.
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