Novak Djokovic – “People Want to See New Winners of Grand Slams”

The 16-time Grand Slam champion, Novak Djokovic was stunned upon coming across the first round results of the NextGen at Wimbledon 2019, and later stated that there’s still time for the world to see a new Grand Slam champion.

“There is time,” Novak Djokovic said when asked about the new era contenders making their breakthrough on the major courts. “I understand that people want to see new winners of Grand Slams. They don’t want to see the three of us dominating the Slam titles. Eventually it’s going to come – in about 25 years. Then we’ll all be happy.”

The NextGen of tennis showing up on the Grand Slam courts has been a matter of discussion for a few years now. The last 12 Slams have been shared amongst, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and there hasn’t been a new face pulling a major title since 2014.

Since 2003, the ‘Big Three’ of tennis have claimed 55 major titles and the Croatian tennis player, Marin Cilic (31 years-old) is the youngest Grand Slam champion amongst the active players on the tour. Rafael Nadal was the last teenager to lift a Slam as a teenager at Roland Garros 2005 and since then there hasn’t been a teenager claiming a major title.

The American legend, John McEnroe talked about the hunger which exists within Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, and their never-ending desire to dominate on the major courts and also in the domain of tennis. 

“We have the three greatest players that have ever lived, playing at the same time,” McEnroe said. “They’re extremely hungry, which is an amazing quality at that age. I also believe they’ve psyched out opponents – and they’re better. You add all those things together, and sure, you could say that we’re disappointed with the fact that these guys in their mid to late twenties haven’t been able to make a breakthrough, but these guys are all-time great players,” he added.

Certainly, the mindset of the young generation differentiates them from the ‘Big Three’. The forehands and backhands of the new contenders are quite dominant on the tennis courts, they have outshone the goliaths of tennis, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic on the Masters ATP 1000 surfaces, but when it comes to best-of-five sets and 14 days of incessant tennis, the NextGen players fall flat.

“They sense and understand that. I believe to some extent they’ve got into the heads of these guys. To me they’ve also done more to add some elements to their game than some of the other players, who have maybe tried but haven’t been as successful,” McEnroe said.

This year, a new face of tennis, Daniil Medvedev did his best to make to pull off the Grand Slam title in New York. The 23-year-old, Medvedev was close to his premier major crown at the US Open 2019, but it was Rafael Nadal who withered away the reverie of the young soul.