Federer, Nadal, Djokovic & Murray: Playing together one last time

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have been a legendary force—not only have they won 66 of the last 77 majors between them, a stretch that began with Federer’s first at Wimbledon in 2003, but they’ve won almost a third of all of the majors in the entire Open Era (66 out of 218, or 30.3%). And until Daniil Medvedev crashed the party in 2021, no one other than those four men had even been No. 2—let alone No. 1—on the ATP rankings since 2005.

And 2005 was the first year that Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray all played at the same tournament together, at Wimbledon.

At the time, Federer and Nadal were already established top players. Federer, 23, was ranked No. 1 and a four-time Grand Slam champion, and would go on to win his third straight Wimbledon title that fortnight. Nadal, 19, had just captured his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros and was ranked No. 3—he would fall in the second round at the All England Club that year, to Luxembourg's Gilles Muller.

Meanwhile, Djokovic and Murray were 18-year-olds on the rise at the time—Djokovic a No. 128-ranked qualifier in the draw, Murray a No. 312-ranked wild card. They would both reach the third round in their Wimbledon debuts that year.

It’s now been 20 years since anyone other than the Big 4 has won Wimbledon.

Fast forward from 2005 Wimbledon to the Laver Cup this week, and the Big 4 are all playing at the same tour-level event together for the 110th (and last) time.

The 2022 Laver Cup is the first event to feature every member of the Big Four since Wimbledon in 2019, where Djokovic won the title, Federer was the runner-up, Nadal was a semifinalist and Murray was in the doubles draws, delaying his singles comeback until the summer hardcourt season after having undergone a second hip surgery earlier that year (he played men’s doubles with France's Pierre-Hugues Herbert and mixed doubles with WTA legend Serena Williams).

The last time all four of them played singles at the same event together was the Australian Open in 2019—they won’t all be playing singles at the Laver Cup, though, as at least Federer will be doubles-only, playing the final match of his professional career alongside Nadal on Friday night.

In the 109 previous tour-level events that featured all four members of the Big 4, one of them went on to capture the title an incredible 97 times: Federer 28 times, Nadal 28 times, Djokovic 32 times and Murray nine times.

Only seven players other than the Big 4 have managed to win a tour-level event that featured all of the Big 4 (with one former No. 1 even doing it three times).

PLAYERS OTHER THAN THE BIG 4 TO WIN AN EVENT FEATURING ALL OF THE BIG 4:
~ Andy Roddick: 3 times [2006 Cincinnati, 2008 Dubai, 2010 Miami]
~ Stan Wawrinka: 2 times [2014 Australian Open, 2015 Roland Garros]
~ Nikolay Davydenko: 2 times [2008 Miami, 2009 ATP Finals]
~ David Nalbandian: 2 times [2007 Madrid, 2007 Paris]
~ Ivan Ljubicic: 1 time [2010 Indian Wells]
~ Juan Martin del Potro: 1 time [2009 US Open]
~ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: 1 time [2008 Paris]

With Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray all on Team Europe at the Laver Cup this week, this will be the first time all four of them could win a title together.

Federer and Nadal won the Laver Cup together as part of Team Europe in 2017 and 2019, while Federer and Djokovic did the same in 2018.