When the French Open rolls aound in late May, Novak Djokovic will play for another remarkable feat.
Should the Serb triumph at Roland Garros, he will hold all four Grand Slam titles at once.
Incredibly, the 31-year-old has already achieved this, becoming the third man in history to win four consecutive majors after Don Budge and Rod Laver when he won the French Open in 2016.
Budge won six Slams in a row between 1937 and 1938, while Laver completed the Calendar Slam in 1962 and 1969, and Djokovic now has a chance to collect all the majors again.
It’s something that neither of his great rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have achieved and Federer ranks the ‘super impressive’ feat ‘all the way up there’.
But the Swiss 20-time Grand Slam winner believes that conditions in the modern era have made life easier for Djokovic compared to some of the greats of yesteryear.
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‘Super impressive. It ranks all the way up there, in my opinion,’ Federer told Sport 360.
‘There is also no secret that nowadays it’s easier to do than maybe before then.
‘It’s also helping myself, or Rafa, or anybody who was close. It’s just that the surfaces play more even today, more equal. Back in the day you had really fast grass courts to extremely slow clay courts.
‘The difference was just so extreme that it was hard to do what [Bjorn] Borg did you know, winning back-to-back French Opens-Wimbledons because the game was so different.
‘You really had to serve and volley on grass. Today you can not serve and volley once on grass and win Wimbledon.
‘So that’s what I’m saying, it could happen more frequently. That’s what we’re seeing. I won three, made the finals once. Rafa I think he was close many times.
‘Novak has been extremely close, has done it once, now maybe going for another one.
‘So it shows that it is more possible today. But the feat, still regardless of the conditions are easier, is still and would be an unbelievable one. Credit to him.’
More: Tennis
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