What does ‘the greatest’ mean? It’s hard to say because great can mean on the court, it can mean off the court, it can mean a lot of stuff. It’s just a matter of how you want to frame the question,” sports journalist and author Christopher Clarey, who has reported from more than 100 Grand Slams, told Al Jazeera.
“But in a sense, in terms of results on the court, if you want to reduce it to that, I think Djokovic has got a really strong case.”
The 36-year-old Serbian, the oldest man to win the French Open, refuses to be drawn into the discussion.
“I don’t want to say that I am the greatest because I feel it’s disrespectful towards all the great champions in different eras of our sport that was played in a completely different way than it is played today,” Djokovic said after winning his third French Open title in Paris on Sunday.
Wearing a red jacket with the number 23, he added: “I leave those kind of discussions of who is the greatest to someone else,” and spoke only of his “faith and confidence and belief” in what he is “capable of doing”.
The debates about the greatest of all time – the so-called GOAT – are always fun, more so if they draw fans into the conversation, tennis commentator Ravi Usha said.
