Beijing time on January 15th: With the end of the first week of the 2021 season and the Australian Open qualifying tournament, players participating in this year's first Grand Slam tournament have taken charter flights arranged by the organizing committee to fly to Australia to p

Beijing time, January 15th: With the end of the first week of the 2021 season and the Australian Open qualifying tournament, players participating in this year's first Grand Slam tournament have taken charter flights arranged by the organizing committee to fly to Australia for quarantine. Prepare for the game starting on February 8th. As the men's singles favorites Nadal, Djokovic, Thiem and others have also stated through social media that they have arrived to start isolation and preparations. As the first Grand Slam event of the 2021 season, this year's Australian Open may have a huge impact on determining the GOAT in men's tennis. Today we will talk about this topic.

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic raging around the world, Australia, as the host, has implemented strict epidemic prevention measures. Therefore, this year's Australian Open is scheduled to be held in February for the first time. Recently, some famous tennis players have arrived in Australia. Due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, this year's Australian Open will be completely different from previous years. In order to alleviate the travel problems of players during the epidemic, Tennis Australia chartered 15 flights to pick up players from Antalya and Delray Beach, where the first week of the ATP Tour was held, as well as Dubai and Los Angeles, to Australia. Some male players who had just participated in the qualifying tournament set off from Doha. Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, and some other players have revealed on social media that they have arrived in Australia. They will prepare for the ATP Cup, new events in Melbourne, and the Australian Open in early February.

The 2021 Australian Open competition may play a watershed role in determining the ownership of the GOAT in men's tennis. On October 11, 2020, in the French Open men's singles final at Roland Garros, Nadal defeated Djokovic and won the 13th Musketeers Cup. His number of Grand Slams also tied Federer's to 20. , the gap with Djokovic has also widened to 3. This result has brought about heated discussions about who is the best in the history of men's tennis. Although each fan has different criteria for judging who is the goat, the most commonly accepted view is who has the most Grand Slam championships and who is the goat. , as for other data such as the number of Masters, the number of weeks ranked first in the world, are only additional conditions for comparison when the two have the same number of Grand Slams. It is for this reason that the 2021 Australian Open is particularly important.

Federer has announced his withdrawal from the Australian Open due to unrecovered injuries, so his number of Grand Slams will stay at 20 after the Australian Open anyway. Judging from his situation, his most competitive event is still Wimbledon, where he has eight championships. It was a pity that he lost at Wimbledon in the past two years. In the 2018 match with Kevin Anderson, he was only two points away from winning the match. In last year's Wimbledon final, he missed two points amidst the overwhelming cheers of the audience. The championship point of consecutive service wins was reversed by Djokovic and missed the 21st Grand Slam. At Wimbledon in 2021, he is bound to once again challenge for the Wimbledon championship. As for the other three Grand Slams, Federer basically has no chance of winning the French Open. There is still a certain chance at the Australian Open and the US Open. Federer will also turn 40 this year, and it will be increasingly difficult to win a Grand Slam. He is still a strong contender for GOAT. Although Nadal has the same number of Grand Slams as him, the number of runner-ups and the number of weeks ranked first in the world are far behind. The current goat is still Federer.

For Nadal, if he can win the Australian Open in 2021, it will be a high probability event for him to get the GOAT. Melbourne is not a blessed place for Nadal. He has reached the finals here five times, but he only defeated Federer in a hearty five-set battle in 2009 to win the only Australian Open championship. If he can win again, it will become a public event. The first men's double-lap Grand Slam since the 1990s. Nadal reached the finals at the Australian Open in 2017 and 2019 but lost to Federer and Djokovic respectively. Especially in the 2019 finals, he only got 8 games and had no chance to fight back. As youth grows, his competitiveness on hard courts gradually declines. If he wants to win the Australian Open again, he has a good chance of not meeting Djokovic. However, with Nadal's 20 Grand Slams and his dominance at the French Open, it is most likely that he will eventually become the goat.

Djokovic currently only has 17 Grand Slams, and he is the least among the three. Although he is the number one favorite in at least the next three of the four Grand Slams, it becomes increasingly difficult to win a Grand Slam match as he grows older. There is an interesting data from . After Djokovic won his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2008, the gap between him and Nadal was two points. Twelve years later, the gap between him and Nadal is still two points. It doesn't seem like there's a big gap between the two, but it's actually a gap like a chasm. Last year's US Open is a good example. Djokovic was eliminated in a way that no one expected and missed the best opportunity to catch up. The Australian Open is his blessed place. He has reached the finals 8 times and won 8 times. He is the player who has won the most Australian Open championships. In last year's final, he reversed Tim to win the championship after falling 1-2 behind in the first three sets. The impact he will face in the 2021 season will certainly be greater. If Djokovic wants to become the goat, he must win this year's Australian Open championship. If he doesn't win it, it will only be a dream for him to become the goat.

Players have arrived in Australia one after another for quarantine. We are also looking forward to the arrival of the Australian Open and watching exciting games.