MELBOURNE, Australia — For about 20 years, beating any two of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic at the same Grand Slam was the men’s tennis final boss.
Federer never did it despite having two attempts. Nadal was more successful, achieving the feat three times — all at the French Open — in five attempts. Djokovic did it once, winning the 2011 U.S. Open by beating Federer in the semifinals and then Nadal in the final.
Outside of the ‘Big Three,’ only four players ever managed to do it. Juan Martin del Potro took out Nadal and then Federer at the 2009 U.S. Open; Tomas Berdych beat Federer and Djokovic at Wimbledon one year later. Stan Wawrinka defeated the same duo at the 2015 French Open, having beaten Djokovic and then Nadal at the 2014 Australian Open. The final player is Marat Safin, who beat Djokovic and Federer at the 2005 Australian Open, but there’s a bit of an asterisk there: Djokovic was 17 and playing his very first Grand Slam match.
Most players who got a shot at pulling off the double failed. Even if they had the necessary quality and belief to do it — which very few did — they failed to rouse themselves from the physical and emotional toll of beating one to get back up and beat another.
For Djokovic, the modern-day equivalent of this task looms on the horizon, with a serious challenge in between.
Djokovic plays world No. 2 Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open semifinals on Friday, but Zverev has acknowledged that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the two final bosses of men’s tennis right now; Djokovic, 37, still has the biggest claim to being the third. Alcaraz and Sinner split the four Grand Slams last year, and nobody has beaten both of them at a major.
Djokovic came within a set of it when he beat Sinner in the 2023 Wimbledon semifinals before losing to Alcaraz in the final; Daniil Medvedev knocked Sinner out of Wimbledon in the following year’s quarterfinals but Alcaraz wiped him out in the semifinals. That could change if America’s No. 21 seed Ben Shelton springs a surprise on Sinner on Friday.
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But if Sinner comes through and Djokovic gets past Zverev, Djokovic would face the world No. 1 not just hoping to win a record 25th Grand Slam title, but with the chance to become the first man to beat the world’s top three players at the same Grand Slam. The last time Djokovic played Sinner in Melbourne, 12 months ago, the Italian snapped his perfect 20-0 record in Australian Open semifinals and finals with a four-set win.
Sinner’s dethroning of Djokovic in Melbourne proved to be a turning point. (Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP via Getty Images)
Now, Djokovic has to recover from the emotional and physical toll of beating Alcaraz to lift himself for a couple more matches. He picked up an injury in the first set of their match, which Djokovic said he was “concerned” about post-match. He has a history of toughing it out in Melbourne, winning the 2023 tournament with a tear in his left hamstring.
He also has to get used to what could become a more frequent test. Last year, Djokovic was on the opposite side of the draw to Sinner and Alcaraz at three of the four Grand Slams, meaning he was protected from playing both of them. He didn’t have that luxury this time, beating Alcaraz in a remarkable quarterfinal to set up his meeting with Zverev. Unless Alcaraz moves past Zverev to become world No. 2, Djokovic could face the same scenario again. He is vulnerable to a draw where he could play the top three seeds for the first time since he rose to the top three in the world rankings, 18 years ago in 2007.
Perhaps more significantly, he’s having to grapple with two players at his own otherworldly level for the first time in a long while. He last had to play Federer and Nadal at the same major during the 2012 French Open, when he beat the former in the semifinals but lost to the latter in the final. From that point on, one of the Big Three — including for a brief period Djokovic — tended to be off just enough that such a scenario could not develop.
In the intervening period, Djokovic could often warm up for a final against one of them with a relatively straightforward last-four match. In Melbourne, three of Djokovic’s previous five semifinal opponents were No 28 seed Lucas Pouille, qualifier Aslan Karatsev and the then-unseeded Tommy Paul.
The landscape has changed now, and if Djokovic could fend off the new double-headed snake at the top of men’s tennis, along with beating a resurgent Zverev — who has evolved his game to keep pace with Sinner and Alcaraz — he would achieve one of his most remarkable major wins. Having lived through the era of the most formidable pack the sport has ever seen, before then sitting alone for a while, Djokovic is back to dealing with two otherworldly adversaries.
To achieve immortality here, he might have to do what he’s only done once before: knock one out, then steady himself and do it all again. For now, Zverev — and the nature of his injury — stand in his way.
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(Top photo: David Gray / AFP via Getty Images)
