John McEnroe exclusively in Legend’s Voice: “Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are only fighting each other”

The Australian Open is casting its shadow, the first big highlight of the tennis calendar will take place in Melbourne between January 16th and 30th.

According to McEnroe, Daniil Medvedev, who gave up a two-set lead over Rafael Nadal in Melbourne last year and subsequently struggled with problems, has to find a new attitude.

The 63-year-old continues to rate Nadal and Novak Djokovic as top favorites for the big titles, despite his advanced tennis age.

By John McEnroe

Hello dear tennis fans,

At the beginning of the new tennis season, I am particularly curious to see how the young generation around Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Félix Auger-Aliassime will do in 2023. It’s a real pity that Carlos will miss the Australian Open.

I expect great things from these guys and believe they are capable of incredible things. It seems as if they could overtake the generation around Alexander Zverev or Stefanos Tsitsipas prematurely. We debated how many Grand Slam tournaments they can win, but ultimately it was the big three, particularly Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who continued to emerge victorious. Of course we’ve seen new champions every now and then, for example Daniil Medvedev or Dominic Thiem triumphing at the US Open.

We’ve always waited to see who will make the big breakthrough. It looks to me right now that Rune and Alcaraz – as long as they stay healthy – will win numerous majors.

Sinner also belongs to this group, Félix Auger-Aliassime has made really great progress in the past few months – and I assume that he also has the quality to win several majors.

Youngsters will dominate the next ten years

It will be interesting to see if some of the guys who are currently in their mid to late 20s can step it up a notch and keep up with the top talent. For me, these are the players who will take the lead and dominate over the next ten years.

You can feel that these youngsters are fearless. You’re allowed to be at that age, you just don’t know any better and that’s even an advantage for a while. For that reason, this year will be very interesting for Alcaraz. After all, he is the youngest player to finish the year as number one. It’s an incredible achievement, but expectations are much higher now than they were a year ago.

From my point of view, Rune overreached himself a bit at the French Open in June, the pressure obviously got to him. But afterwards he recovered and you could see what he was made of; so it will be interesting to see what happens with him this year.

The American players have also been pushing each other and nurturing the belief that they can compete at the highest level. If I had to pick one, I’d probably pick Sebastian Korda, he’s the youngest in America’s current top flight and the one who has the biggest advantage at the moment.

Frances Tiafoe has also improved a lot, Taylor Fritz is already a top 10 player and has a great career ahead of him. Making it to the top will be a difficult task for him, but he has increased the pressure on the other US boys. We’ll probably see a few Americans in the top ten in the world rankings soon.

Medvedev “needs to find a whole new attitude”

Now let’s move on to some other guys: Zverev was injured for a long time. It will be interesting to see how he recovers. Medvedev, meanwhile, never recovered from losing the match against Nadal in last year’s Australian Open final after leading by two sets in my opinion.

Daniil has to find a whole new attitude: he was number one at the beginning of the year, now he has slipped to seventh place. That’s quite a dramatic drop for someone so close to winning the Australian Open.

Such a defeat can sometimes really stick in your memory. I lost to Ivan Lendl at the French Open in 1984 and I’m only over it now! I have a feeling Daniil is still struggling; when you’re so far ahead and you have victory right in front of you, it’s not that easy to stay focused. I was lucky enough to win Wimbledon shortly after losing to Lendl, that eased the pain but you never forget it. Nevertheless, you have to learn from it. He has enough experience to use the Australian Open final as a boost.

But it wasn’t just that: the war in Ukraine and the fact that the Russians weren’t allowed to play at Wimbledon will also have influenced him; the terrible events are affecting everyone, but mostly the Ukrainians and the Russians – and that makes it even more difficult. It was a terrible year from a political point of view, which Daniil didn’t leave cold either. Andrey Rublev is another guy who says a lot of right things and preaches peace when he plays. It is very gratifying that he is doing this. You just have to take into account that all the men and women from these countries are affected.

“How long will Rafa and Novak last?”

Another big question for 2023 is how much longer can Rafa and Novak really hold out? In my opinion, the two are just fighting each other, so they have real incentive to win a few more tournaments before retiring. I trust both of them.

I honestly don’t know if Novak or Rafa will settle the GOAT debate once and for all this season. I continue to be impressed with all of the Big 3. I mean Roger just stopped playing and what Rafa did in Australia in 2022 and then at the French Open just speaks for itself. It’s almost impossible to bet against Novak in Melbourne and against Rafa in Paris. Novak has won the Australian Open nine times. After what happened to him in Melbourne last year it will be very interesting to see how the fans react to him and how he reacts to being back.

I see him as a favorite and from my point of view Rafa is still the man to beat at Roland Garros. The man has won the French Open 14 times. As long as he plays, he will always be the favorite at this tournament. And I heard Rafa is still desperate to play that he’s hungry. So is Novak.

The younger players are on the rise, and as a fan you’re hoping they’ll take their game to an even higher level. That doesn’t make it any easier for Rafa and Novak. But you should never write them off. Novak looks the hungriest to me. Of the big three, he’s the one who seems to want to be the record Grand Slam winner and thus the GOAT.

Whatever happens, I have a feeling we’re going to see an exciting generational battle over the next 12 months.

Kind regards and have fun with the Australian Open at Eurosport,
Euer John McEnroe