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The three-way debate on who is GOAT will continue unabated, and Rafael Nadal stole a march over Federer and Djokovic by reaching his 21st at Melbourne. The tyranny of reverence towards tennis’ holy trinity was always going to be tricky for those biding their time in the wings. Daniil Medvedev, perhaps, has picked up the gauntlet of dislodging their pedestal, and is feeling the heat of howling crowds who aren’t sensitive to how their vocal love for the Big Three can end up sounding like jeers for their younger challengers. The three-way debate on who is GOAT will continue unabated, and Rafael Nadal stole a march over Federer and Djokovic by reaching his 21st at Melbourne.
But what the 6-hour-long battle, where the Spaniard came from two sets down to jostle past Medvedev, did to the Russian, showed that in tennis’ fervent dogma for the three presiding divinities, sport’s enduring underdog story has crumbled. So insistent are the fans in their devotion to the trio, that anyone not playing second fiddle to them will have to play the antagonist, and no more.
A disruptor of the near-two-decade-long hegemony, owing to his hard-court consistency, Medvedev is acutely feeling the un-love of the crowds. The 25-year-old who might’ve started out as a fan of the trinity, finds himself in the unenviable position of being good enough to take them apart in Grand Slam finals. But he’s simultaneously hit by the whiplash realisation that his childhood dream where the crowds would root for an underdog as he slayed the giants, is not coming true. Medvedev is uniquely in the hot seat when New York whimsically starts showering love on Djokovic and Melbourne shushes audibly so Nadal can peacefully serve out. All that Medvedev wanted was love while accumulating his own Grand Slam trophies. It’s the one thing he’ll have to do without, apparently, while the search for the GOAT bleats on.
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on February 1, 2022 under the title ‘Three plus one’.
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