In the last 11 years, which means 44 Grand Slam tournaments, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have won 36 majors. That leaves very little for the rest of the players beneath them, with just five more currently active players calling themselves grand slam champions at one point or another, none of them with more than two: Andy Murray, Stanislas Wawrinka, Juan Martin Del Potro, Marin Cilic and even Lleyton Hewitt.
Marin Čilić, Croatia: 1 title
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Maybe the most surprising Grand Slam title winner on the list, considering that he has made a semifinal only three times: Australian Open in 2010, US Open in 2014 (which he won) and this year at the US Open, losing to Novak Djokovic. Since beating Kei Nishikori at Flushing Meadows, Čilić hasn’t done much, not reaching a single final in 2015, with a shoulder injury bothering him for the early months of the season.
Juan Martín del Potro, Argentina: 1 title
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Yes, Del Potro, who hasn’t won a title since January 2014 and has been to just one Grand Slam semifinal since his 2009 triumph at the US Open, dealing with injuries ever since, is the man who stopped Roger Federer’s dominance in Queens, denying him the sixth consecutive title which would have put Federer above everyone else at that specific tournament. Federer hasn’t won it ever since.
Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland: 2 titles
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Until the Australian Open in 2014? Wawrinka had just one semifinal appearance in a Grand Slam (2013 at the US Open) and three more quarterfinals appearance. A solid, consistent, unremarkable player. But then came Melbourne in 2014, and Wawrinka stunned Rafael Nadal in the final, coming after a massive quarterfinals win over Novak Djokovic. A year later, after reaching the semifinal in Australia to kick off the year, Wawrinka beat Djokovic in Paris to deny the world’s number one the complete career grand slam achievement.
Andy Murray, United Kingdom: 2 titles
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Murray got the monkey off his back in two stages. First it was his win over Novak Djokovic in the 2012 US Open final to finally get his Grand Slam title and end a drought for British tennis players. A year later at Wimbledon, Murray did what has avoided British tennis players for almost 80 years, and although he hasn’t done too poorly since, there’s a good chance that his career peaked at that moment. Since winning Wimbledon in 2013, he has made a Slam final just once more: Australia in 2015.
Lleyton Hewitt, Australia: 2 titles
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Once upon a time, Hewitt was the best player in the world. At the age of 20 he became the world number one. He won the 2001 US Open and Wimbledon in 2002, filling the gap between the Sampras and Federer (later Nadal and Djokovic) era. He made a Grand Slam final twice more: US Open in 2004 and Australian in 2005, but ever since 2009 he hasn’t been to a quarterfinal, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying, still playing at the age of 34, currently ranked 139th in the world.
Novak Djokovic, Serbia: 10 titles
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Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title in 2008 (Australia) but had to wait three more years, waiting for Rafael Nadal to peak (in 2010) and Federer to have his one last dominant Grand Slam year (2009) before taking over the business. He’s been the best player in the world since 2011, winning three titles that year, following that up with one championship in each of the next three years, and has been back to historic form in 2015 with three slams. The only major he hasn’t won? The French Open, where he’s lost three times in the last four years in the final of. He has two US Open titles, three at Wimbledon and five in Melbourne.
Rafael Nadal, Spain: 14 titles
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The title split says something about Nadal. He has won the French Open nine times in 11 years. The rest of his championships? Two at Wimbledon, two at the US Open and one in Australia. Compared with Federer and Djokovic, he has just one year of winning three slams, has never repeated in a major excluding the French Open and has only three seasons of winning more than just one slam. He hasn’t won since the 2014 French Open, and didn’t look this year remotely close to being good enough to win another.
Roger Federer, Switzerland: 17 titles
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Federer, like Nadal, has a career Grand Slam, getting it in 2009 after winning his first and only French Open. He has four Australian Open titles, five at the US Open and seven at Wimbledon. He has been to three slam finals since winning his last title (Wimbledon 2012) and at the age of 34 (six months younger than Hewitt), he is still the number two player in the world, and it’s not even close between him and the next in line.
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