Novak Djokovic has won the Australian Open for his 22nd Grand Slam title.
Australian
French
Wimbledon
US Open
2003
Roger Federer
Andy Roddick
2004
Roger Federer
Gastón Gaudio
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
2005
Marat Safin
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
2006
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
2007
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
2008
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
2009
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
Juan Martín del Potro
2010
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
2011
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
2012
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Andy Murray
2013
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Andy Murray
Rafael Nadal
2014
Stan Wawrinka
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Marin Čilić
2015
Novak Djokovic
Stan Wawrinka
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
2016
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray
Stan Wawrinka
2017
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
2018
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
2019
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
2020
Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal
Cancelled
Dominic Thiem
2021
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
Daniil Medvedev
2022
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Carlos Alcaraz
2023
Novak Djokovic
Since Roger Federer won his first Grand Slam in 2003 the Big 3 have dominated the sport. In the Australian, French, and Wimbledon they have won 52 winners of the 58 slams in those three majors. Only the US Open has had any minor diversity with 8 of the non Big 3 winners coming in the 20 times it was played. That’s a total of 64 out of the last 78 majors have been won by the Big 3 and they were in 7 of the finals they lost as well.
There was a stretch in their prime of 61 majors where they won 53. Of those 8 majors, they lost Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray (who are all time greats in any other era) and hall of farmers themselves won 6 of them. I still consider Murray to be an all-time great considering the number of times he lost in the semi-finals and finals to the Big 3. The rest of his resume is more similar to Pete Sampras than other 3 time winners. He just had the unfortunate luck of being starved off by the Big 3.
What is remarkable about this run no one even talks about is how many times the Big 3 have missed slams with injury or other issues. They weren’t even going into many of these tournaments with all the bullets in the chamber. While health and absences are part of it, with a little more health or without covid and the vaccine status issues they likely have a few more as well.
Absences
11 Nadal
8 Federer
3 Djokovic
That’s also not including 3 withdraws during the majors and even 1 disqualification for hitting a line person as. That’s 26 times health or other issues forced at least one of them out of a major.
It’s just an incredible run that continues for the foreseeable future now. As good as the next generation rising looks they aren’t ready to take out the greatest player that ever lived yet. Nadal isn’t done yet either as the Big 3 legacy marches on.