GOAT Race: 10 moments when the Big 3's Grand Slam chase hung in the balance

INTERVIEW: Novak Djokovic takes the lead in the Grand Slam title chase

Is the Big 3’s Grand Slam title race finally over? It appears so. Roger Federer has retired with 20 Slams, and Rafael Nadal, who has 22, has announced that he’ll play just one more season. Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, has taken the lead for the first time with 23, and doesn’t look like he’ll be stopping any time soon.

Now that we (probably) know the winner, we’re looking back at the times when this two-decade marathon might have gone a different way. Over the next 10 days, we’ll highlight 10 moments when Big 3 matches at the Slams hung in the balance. As you’ll likely be reminded, these three future Hall-of-Famers didn’t just rack up titles, they created the most tension-filled tennis of the 21st century.

1. 2007 Wimbledon final: Nadal “seizes up” with break points in the fifth

The 2007 Wimbledon men’s final is among the most under-appreciated great matches. That’s because the two contestants, Federer and Nadal, played an even better one on the same court the following year. As far as quality of play, this one was every bit as scintillating as its successor. Over the first three sets, two of which ended in tiebreakers, the Swiss and Spaniard wowed the world with tennis that was predictably excellent, and surprisingly entertaining for grass.

At the end of those three sets, though, it looked like nothing between them would change. Federer had beaten Nadal in four sets in the 2006 final; now he led two sets to one. But Rafa had other ideas this time. Unhappy about his squandered chances earlier on, he threw a little extra caution to the wind and found himself up 4-0 in the fourth. That development may have been too much for his body, though—during the first point of the fifth game, his knee mysteriously balked. He limped to the sideline to have it taped; talking to the trainer, he looked as scared as he ever had, or would, on a court.

Again, though, Nadal rebounded. He held twice to win the fourth set, and was the more confident ball-striker to start the fifth. Twice, at 1-1 and 2-2, he reached double break point on Federer’s serve. On three of those points, Rafa had a look.

On the first, Federer hit a first serve into Nadal’s backhand strike zone; Rafa made solid contact but sent the return long. On the second, Nadal shredded a crosscourt backhand that Federer—in the day’s most important shot—somehow dug out and sent deep into Nadal’s backhand corner. Rafa, in a rare moment of recklessness, ran around to hit a forehand down the line and missed wide. On Nadal’s third genuine chance on break point, Federer missed his first serve; Rafa moved in for the second, but Federer came up with a point-winning slice out wide.

Federer held with a strong forehand, and practically skipped to the sideline with relief. Instead of Nadal claiming the lead, it was Federer who would soar to victory, breaking for 4-2, and again for 6-2 and the title. Instead of Nadal winning his fourth major, Federer won his 11th.

Nobody understood how close he had come better than Nadal.

“My defeat in 2007 left me utterly destroyed,” he wrote in his memoir. “I cried incessantly in the bathroom for half an hour.

“Had I seized my four chances to break his serve early in the set (instead of seizing up, as I did),…I could have won it.”

Nadal, then 21, believed he had blown his last chance at his ultimate goal, a Wimbledon title. It was left to his uncle Toni, “the toughest of tennis coaches,” to briefly take pity on his nephew and reassure him there would be more Centre Court finals in his future. He was right.