Why the ‘Rafael Nad would have won more Grand Slams than Novak Djokovic if not for injuries’ narrative has to stop semifinals and the Wimbledon final.
Meanwhile, Nadal seems to have left his best days on the tennis court well behind him. After a resurgent 2022 that saw the Spaniard win his 21st and 22nd Majors at the Australian Open and the French Open, he was once again struck by injury.
Even though the record 14-time Roland Garros champion returned to action at the beginning of this season after missing almost the entirety of the last one, he has been a mere shadow of his former self. A 12-7 win-loss record on the ATP Tour is a confirmation of that.
To make matters worse, Nadal has struggled to find consistency because of niggling fitness concerns that have seen him withdraw from three out of four Grand Slams this year along with a host of other prestigious tournaments. The only 2024 Major he featured in was the French Open, where he lost in the first round to Alexander Zverev in straight sets.
To put things into perspective, Rafael Nadal has now missed 16 Majors throughout his illustrious career, either due to existing injuries or concerns about sustaining a fresh one. In contrast, Novak Djokovic only missed one Major with injury: the 2017 US Open. So, it would seem that the narrative that Nadal would have won more Grand Slams than Djokovic had the Spaniard been more injury-free makes sense. But does it?
However, he also said his nephew had the potential to win more Majors than the Serb, but he could not realize it because of the many injuries he had to contend with.
But what I don’t agree with is the rampant ‘what-if-ism’
Just so you don’t assume that I’m cherrypicking examples, let’s fast forward to a more recent instance of Nadal missing a Major with an injury. What about 2013, arguably his most dominant year on the ATP Tour? The Spaniard had to withdraw from the 2013 Australian Open but went on to win the French Open and the US Open that year.
What if Nadal had played in Melbourne that year? Again, I believe he ‘could’ have won the title, but again, to say he ‘would’ have is to dismiss eventual champion Novak Djokovic’s heroics. Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in four sets in the final, but the Serb’s greatest test in that tournament came in the fourth round against a brilliant Stan Wawrinka, a five-setter that Djokovic somehow managed to dig deep in and win.
Quite simply, injuries are part and parcel of any sport, and talking about how a player would have fared without them may be fascinating, but at the end of the day, it is futile. So, let’s put the speculative talk aside and bring this down purely to facts and, of course, my conclusive opinion on the subject.
Rafael Nadal lost eight Grand Slam finals, and he would have been well beyond the reach of Novak Djokovic had he won them all
Novak Djokovic (L), Rafael Nadal (R) (Source: Getty)
Novak Djokovic (L), Rafael Nadal (R) (Source: Getty)
On eight occasions, Rafael Nadal made it to Major finals but ended up on the losing side. Why am I
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