Tennis will continue to prosper when the Big Three of men’s tennis decide to hang up their rackets, according to Daniil Medvedev.
The reigning US Open champion says he can’t see any reason as to why the next generation of men’s players will not be able to take over from the prestigious trio of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. All three tennis greats after over the age of 30 with Djokovic being the only one to play in the season-ending ATP Finals this year. Between them, they have won 60 Grand Slam titles and have spent more than 850 weeks as world No.1.
Speaking to reporters following his defeat at the ATP Finals on Sunday, world No.2 Medvedev said there was ‘no shame’ in him and his peers not being able to match the milestones set out by the trio.
“When there was [Bjorn] Borg and [John] McEnroe, when they were close, finished their careers, everybody was like, ‘tennis is over, we won’t ever have any great players, it is finished’,”Medvedev said.
“We did have some: [Pete] Sampras, [Andre] Agassi, they were at the top. [When] Sampras retired, [people were saying] ‘okay, tennis is over’.
“Then we had Novak, Roger and Rafa. If you asked just before they came, everybody would say, ‘well, tennis will not be interesting anymore’.
“It’s the same here. Tennis is a great sport, so I don’t see why our generation would miss on something.
“Of course, maybe we don’t [win] 20 Grand Slams, yet nobody did before Roger, Rafa and Novak, so they were also worse than them.
‘It’s definitely not going to be shameful [if we win fewer Grand Slams].”
Earlier this year Medvedev became the first player outside of the Big Four, which includes Andy Murray, to break into the world’s top two for 15 years. At Flushing Meadows he ended Djokovic’s dreams of a calendar Grand Slam by prevailing in the final to win his first major.
There are signs that change is starting to occur on the men’s Tour. Seven out of the eight Masters 1000 tournaments to take place in 2021 were won by different players. The only person to win multiple trophies in the category was Zverev.
Coincidentally, it is Zverev who ends the season with the most wins on the ATP Tour at 59 which is one more than Medvedev. The German is yet to win a major title but he is more than capable of doing so according to his rival.
“He is a great player that is capable of beating anybody. He definitely can win a Grand Slam because it’s just obvious,” Medvedev commented.
“But he’s not the only one. That’s where it gets tough. He was in the semis in US Open, lost in five sets. Who knows, maybe if he was in the final, he would have beaten me.’
“It’s just a matter of every tournament is a different scenario, different surface. You need to win seven matches to be a Grand Slam champion. Is he capable? Yes. Is he going to do it? We never know.”
Medvedev has won a total of four ATP titles this season.
