With his unmatched consistency on all three surfaces, the ability to deliver his best tennis in the most critical moments and outplay every rival in the exciting best-of-five matches, Novak has become one of the greatest players ever at Grand Slam events, chasing his record-breaking seventh Australian Open crown here in Melbourne.
Also, Novak hunts the 15th Major overall that would put him in front of one of his childhood heroes Pete Sampras, seeking the third big crown in a row after winning Wimbledon and the US Open last year. Back in 2015-16, Novak had become the first player since Rod Laver to hold all four Grand Slam titles and the only who did that on three different surfaces, with the Aussie competing just on grass and clay.
Thus, Novak became the fifth Open era player with all four Grand Slam crowns after Laver, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, securing his place among the immortals of this game and standing alone with 30 consecutive Grand Slam wins! Novak is the only player in the Open era who competed in three successive Grand Slam finals at all four Majors and he is the youngest player to advance into the semi-final at every of the biggest tennis tournaments.
At the moment, Novak stands third behind Roger and Rafa in the number of Grand Slam finals reached and he is second only to Federer regarding the semi-finals and quarter-finals reached. Also, Novak will chase the big rivals numbers and records in the following years as he looks determined to extend his dominance after a stellar second part of 2018 that he had enjoyed and secure as many records as possible by the end of a career.
Rafael Nadal should join them on this special lost during the season if he stays healthy, leaving the legends like Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras behind them. Andy Murray is eighth on the list and he should stay there for many more years if Tomas Berdych fails to catch him, trailing more than 30 matches to the Brit as the 14th and last player with 200 Grand Slam matches in the Open era.
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