Richard Gasquet: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic are brutal
In an interview with GQ, Richard Gasquet gave deep insights on the Big Three's dominance. The Frenchman is impressed by how Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer did over the last 15 years. "Before, in some Grand Slams, the top players missed out, like Pete Sampras at Roland Garros. These three are enormous and when you fall into this generation, it's brutal! It has been lasting for fifteen years! They are the best players in history, and they are there from January to November. Sampras did not play much on clay, Andre Agassi had some ups and down... These three never stop, they've won about 30 Masters 1000 tournaments each, it's crazy and incredible! 20 Grand Slams for Federer, Djokovic is incredible, Nadal won 11 French Opens."
At the same time, explaining why in the last 15 years, Frenchmen have never managed to win a Grand Slam beating the Big Three, Gasquet said: "We will begin with the excuses: we played with the three best players in the history of tennis. I do not like to say that. Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic won Majors, which means the rest was not strong enough in some aspects. I was never lucky to have a bit of an open draw. At Roland Garros, there was nothing like what we've known for 15 years. This tournament is impossible to win. And the other slams, it's hard. We all lacked a little thing to win them. But the three, Djokovic, Nadal and Federer - no one has ever been better than them, ever. They are all there at the same time. Whenever I played a Grand Slam semifinal, I played against them. I was less strong so I lost all three matches.
"The mental side isn't a problem. In terms of tennis, Federer is stronger, Djokovic too. We often hide behind the mental side, I don't agree. We have a mental strength but they are very strong. They have no weaknesses. For me, serve is a problem. Mental, physical, it's all pretty close. When you're good technique-wise, if the physical side is there, the mind is there too. It's not because they were stronger mentally the reason why they won. Look at Federer's tennis level."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2VjX4zQ
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