First male tennis player to win a Grand Slam singles title in three different decades (open era)

By winning the 2020 Australian Open at Melbourne Park, Novak Djokovic (Serbia) became the first male player to win Grand Slam singles titles in three different decades in the open era (since 1968). He claimed the first of his 17 titles to date at the Australian Open in 2008 before landing 15 titles between the 2011 Australian Open and Wimbledon 2019. His tournament-winning streak continued into a third decade when he defeated Austria’s Dominic Thiem 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Melbourne final on 2 February 2020.

Two female players won Grand Slam singles titles in three different decades before Djokovic joined the club in 2020: Martina Navratilova (1970s-1980s-1990s) and Serena Williams (1990s-2000s-2010s).

Roger Federer (2000s-2010s) and Rafael Nadal (2000s-2010s) will match Djokovic in winning Slam singles titles across three different decades if either of them can lift the trophy at one of the three remaining Grand Slams in 2020 (French Open, Wimbledon, US Open) – or, indeed, a singles title at any Grand Slam in the 2020s.

Australia’s Ken Rosewall has the longest span of Grand Slam titles overall, with 19 years between his first (1953 Australian Open) and last (1972 Australian Open). He became the first man to win Grand Slam titles in three different decades by collecting four trophies in 1953-56, one in 1968 (at the French Open, the first Grand Slam to be held in the open era) and three in 1970-72.