{"id":551867,"date":"2026-03-29T06:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T06:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551867\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T06:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T06:46:13","slug":"former-wimbledon-champion-insists-no-one-can-be-called-the-goat-in-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551867\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Wimbledon champion insists no one can be called the GOAT in tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a> appeared to end the debate in the race to be hailed as the greatest tennis player of all-time after he overtook Roger Federer<\/a> and Rafael Nadal<\/a> in the race to win the most Grand Slam titles in the history of the men\u2019s game, but a former Wimbledon champion has cast doubt over whether the Serbian is the real GOAT of the game.<\/p>\n

Djokovic won his 24th Grand Slam title when he lifted the US Open title in September 2023, easing him two clear of Nadal in the Grand Slam count and drawing him level with Australian great Margaret Court for the most major title wins.<\/p>\n

While Djokovic has failed to get the 25th Grand Slam title that would put him in a league of his own for major title wins, he is comfortably ahead of all his male rivals for weeks, sitting at No 1 and ATP Masters 1000 wins.<\/p>\n

That would appear to make him the undisputed GOAT of tennis, but former 1987 Wimbledon winner Pat Cash has suggested it is impossible to crown the king of the sport, as he believes comparing eras is tough game to play.<\/p>\n

Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and numerous champions from different periods of the sport have all been hailed as the all-time greats, with Cash arguing the definition of greatness is hard to quantify.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/p>\n

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Sinner called \u2018Djokovic 2.0\u2019, Lehecka\u2019s record, Djokovic\u2019s rankings slide, Swiatek\u2019s future \u2013 Miami Open roundup<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody can be called the GOAT, the greatest of all time. That\u2019s why this is such a great conversation,\u201d said Cash, speaking on the latest edition of the Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast<\/a>, that will be released on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s do another podcast on that and throw out our theories.It\u2019s a great one to do. Let\u2019s throw out our theories and some stats and all that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think when you know the history of tennis, you go back to say, well, Rod Laver used to use wooden rackets. There\u2019s all sorts of there\u2019s all sorts of things in the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think about Ken Rosewall and like Laver, he was banned for many years [after turning professional in the amateur era of the sport], so it\u2019s a great discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe forget too soon the greats and then we say somebody\u2019s the greatest of all time. Then they lose a couple of matches and we say, oh now, they\u2019re not the greatest. So we do have short memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former British No 1 interjects at this point and suggests Djokovic deserves the crown based on his Grand Slam record.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have short memories, but for me, I like to go by numbers,\u201d said the 1997 US Open finalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I would say Novak, in my opinion, is the GOAT just because of what he\u2019s doing, nearly 39 years of age, which is incredible to be able to compete at that level and the drive and the intensity. So I consider Novak my goat, but we\u2019re all allowed to have different opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Djokovic fans are always quick to defend their man if anyone dares to suggest the Serbian is not the all-time GOAT of the men\u2019s game, so Cash\u2019s comments are certain to stir some debate.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic the \u2018only one who can beat Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at Grand Slams\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic appeared to end the debate in the race to be hailed as the greatest tennis player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-551867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}