Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have marked the history of tennis and probably that of the entire sporting world. The rivalry between the three reached incredible heights and the three, year after year, shared the limelight on the tennis circuit.
First Roger Federer, then Rafa Nadal and finally Novak Djokovic, number one in the standings and on the pitch, the three sharing no less than 62 Grand Slam titles over the past two decades.
Chilling numbers with three tennis players who dominated an era and clearly surpassed the numbers of legends of the past like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi or Bjorn Borg.
Monday, June 13, 2022 marked an era in the history of tennis, a date that changed the history of tennis and will mark (perhaps the end) at least in the ranking of the big three.
For the first time since November 16, 2003 (almost 20 years), none of the three great tennis players will be part of the World Top 2.
On June 13, the Russian Daniil Medvedev was crowned world number one and the German Alexander Zverev number two.
This situation is unprecedented and will see the big three drop in the world rankings. Roger Federer has appeared little on the circuit in recent years, he has only played a few tournaments and after Wimbledon he could literally disappear from the ATP rankings.
It seems almost impossible that at the age of 41 Roger will return to the Top 2. The situation is different for Rafa Nadal who, with victories at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, is a candidate for this resounding possibility and perhaps dream of a surprising and incredible return to world number one.
Flink talks about Djokovic
While discussing the Roland Garros quarter-final match between Nadal and Djokovic, in a recent podcast, sports journalist Steve Flink suggested that the body language and psyche of the two players had changed from their clash of the game. last year, won by Novak Djokovic.
“It was almost a reversal of psyches this time around. Last year, Novak was really enjoying himself. There were times when he smiled and there was a positive energy in him.
Rafa was a little worried. This time I thought Djokovic seemed a bit negative, irritated by the crowd while Rafa was great,” Flink said. Flink thinks the fans could have witnessed an even bigger battle had the game gone so far. at the end.
“I felt like if we could have gone all the way to the fifth set, maybe both players would have really taken it up a notch and we could have had a spectacular battle.
But that didn’t happen because Djokovic didn’t know how to finish when he had the chance,” Flink said.
