Dominic Thiem: Grand Slams are still dominated by Big Three

Austrian tennis star Dominic Thiem has acknowledged that the younger players are asserting themselves more and more on the Tour but underlined that beating the Big Three at the Grand Slam level is still incredibly difficult. 

Thiem, ranked at No. 4 in the world, recovered from two sets down in last year's US Open final to beat German Alexander Zverev and claim his maiden Grand Slam title.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic got defaulted in the US Open round-of-16 and it opened the door for a player from the younger generation to win a maiden Grand Slam title. 

Last week, Zverev won the Madrid Masters while Russian Daniil Medvedev surpassed Nadal at No. 2 on this week's updated ATP ranking list. 

"Yeah, I think it's only about the Grand Slam tournaments mainly because from the moment when especially Sascha started to win the Masters 1000 events back in 2017, I think also since 2017 nobody of the big three won the Nitto ATP Finals any more, always younger guys. There and the Masters 1000, it's a nice mix of the winners now. Of course, the Grand Slams are still dominated by the big three," Thiem said. 

Thiem admits it's tougher for beat the Big Three at Majors 

"As it's way tougher to beat them, to win three sets against them, it's way more difficult of course than to win two. That's one of the big reasons. But we have a lot of finals already in Grand Slam tournaments. I think in the near future it's also going to happen that somebody else is going to win them," Thiem continued. 

"I also think a lot of people underestimate the time and the era we are playing in with by far the three best players in the history of the game. I think it's more than clear that it's incredibly tough to win Grand Slam tournaments, having to beat most of the times two of them even."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3eMSFBL