Can Federer Stay Grass GOAT Even If Djokovic Ties His 8 Wimbledon Titles

| by Kadir Macar

Roger Federer is widely considered the best grass player in the history of tennis but will he remain that in the future?

With Wimbledon being less than a fortnight away, we look at the long history of the iconic event. It's the biggest tennis event in terms of prestige and certainly one that players dream about the most while growing up. Novak Djokovic famously admitted that it was his childhood dream to win Wimbledon one day.

He's not the only player who won the event as plenty of others won it as well but very few won multiple Wimbledon trophies. Among players competing on the ATP Tour, Djokovic currently sits in second place behind Roger Federer with seven of them. He has the chance to equal that at this year's event with many expecting him to do that.

He's by far the strongest grass player that will be in the draw but a legendary performance by someone like Carlos Alcaraz could possibly dethrone him. It's not what the Spaniard expects of himself but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

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John McEnroe has a very interesting way of tackling the GOAT debate. He considers all members of the Big Three the greatest. For him, Djokovic is the best hard-court player of all time, Federer is the best grass player of all time and Nadal is the best clay player of all time. It's a pragmatic approach to a complicated question but will Federer remain as the grass GOAT?

It's a good question though his grass prowess isn't really reflected by the number of Wimbledon wins only. He's actually the leading player at Wimbledon in terms of match wins as well. He racked up 105 in his career, a far better mark than the second-best Djokovic with 86. That number will rise for the Serbian but will he catch Federer? He'd need at least three more strong outings to do so.

Another impressive stat is the fact that Federer won a grass trophy four times without dropping a single set. That's the same mark Jimmy Connors has and quite a bit better than Djokovic who only did it once. You might say winning the event matters most and you'd be correct but this stat shows how dominant a player was on a surface which certainly plays into the whole GOAT debate.

One thing that speaks in favour of the Serb is his winning percentage in the All England Club. While Djokovic won almost 90% of matches played at Wimbledon, Federer's stopped at 88%. So will he stay the grass GOAT even if Djokovic wins Wimbledon? As always, the answer remains subjective.

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