Rarely do you see such historic rivalries in sports as that of the Big 3 in tennis. Because of what they harvested and everything they gave to the racket, both Rafael Nadal as Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer They are authorized words. This time, the one who chose to speak was the Spaniard, who gave his point of view on the domination of Carlos Alcaraz (1st) and Jannik Sinner (2nd) and he compared it with his own and that of the Serbian and the Swiss.
In an interview with Jorge Valdano for Movistar+, the Mallorcan star assured that The trio that dominated the ATP for around 20 years had more pressure than the duo of Sinner and Alcaraz. This is how he justified it.
Nadal’s words on the merit of the Big 3
“We arrived after Sampras, who had 14 Grand Slams. We, being three instead of two, never had room for maneuver. The demand was maximum“Nadal started. After that, he highlighted the unusual regularity of the legendary trio: “We never stop putting pressure on each other. There was no room to skip tournaments. That is the greatness of our time“.
Then, he directly named today’s dominants: ” Without taking any merit away from Sinner and Alcarazwho want to do things well, I think that we (the Big 3) have contributed to the new generations being able to think that You can be a fierce competitor without hating your rival.. You can have a relationship that is not a friendship, but an optimal one. It is a good legacy that we leave“.
Sinner and Alcaraz, the best in the world today. (EFE)Finally, Nadal spoke about the current situation on the tennis circuit, and included one of the Big 3 in his testimony: “The world evolves and the style of play changes a little. You hit harder, you serve harder… I still believe in intuition, not in playing like a robot trying to guess with statistics. I talked to Federer about this, and he didn’t like having too much information.“.
The Big 3 and the “greatness” that Nadal names, in numbers
Not one of the words Rafa said is wrong. To check it, all you need to do is go to the statistics and check how The presences of him, Djokovic and Federer modified the ATP circuit. And, beyond the aesthetics of their game and the mark they left in more than one generation, The numbers support the reign.
From the first Grand Slam that one of the members won (Federer at the 2003 Wimbledon) to the last (Djokovic at the 2023 US Open), a total of 81 majors. Of that amount, 66 were divided between the trio: 24 for Nole, 22 for the Spanish and 20 for the Swiss. Although Alcaraz and Sinner are still very young, they have a long way to go to reach those figures…
Djokovic, Federer and Nadal, who have accumulated a total of 66 majors… (AP)
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