Former ATP World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko spoke about the difficulty of winning all four Grand Slams in the same season when asked to assess Novak Djokovic‘s chances of doing so in 2024.
The Calendar Grand Slam is one of the hardest accomplishments in tennis. Only one man has done it in the Open Era (Rod Laver in 1969). Novak Djokovic is one of very few ATP players to have come within touching distance of this monumental feat.
Djokovic has won three Grand Slams in the same season on four occasions (he’s the first man to do this), doing so in 2011, 2015, 2021, and more notably in 2023 when Carlos Alcaraz denied him a place in the record books at Wimbledon.
Djokovic, 36, will have another shot to win the Golden Slam next season – the equivalence of winning all four majors and an Olympic gold medal – a rare occurrence that happened back in 1988 thanks to the heroics of former WTA No. 1 Steffi Graf.
Davydenko, once Djokovic’s opponent on the ATP circuit, believes that as the years go by, the chances are diminishing significantly for the Serbian star to do this. He opined that if the Grand Slams were best-of-three set matches instead of five sets, he would “100%” do it.
“I think time passes, and every year it becomes more and more difficult to achieve. If three sets were played at the Slams, I would say that yes, there is a 100 percent chance of winning all four tournaments – this is not a five-game run.”
“Like at the Masters in Paris, he once – and slammed everyone. But at the Slams there are still five-setters. It exhausts the body – playing seven matches. I don’t know how long it will last. It will be interesting to see what form he is in at the 2024 Australian Open.”
Djokovic has never commented that his ambition is to win a Calendar Slam but to compete and be there in the moments. For him, the priority remains to win every Grand Slam possible. However, he’s made it his goal to win an Olympic gold medal in Paris next year.
The Russian claims tennis players don’t have ideal preparation when it comes to the Olympics because it is sandwiched with the compact tennis calendar.
“Many players are not particularly keen on going to the Olympics – it requires special preparation. Tennis players don’t have one, because the tour is on and the Olympics are on the calendar. It’s almost like a regular tournament. And whoever is in better shape at the moment will have a chance to win.”
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