Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer face ‘tousled’ accusation
Milos Raonic has claimed that the Big Three ruined individuals’s expectations of what was regular in tennis. The former world No 3 lately made his comeback after a two-year damage layoff and admitted that tennis had moved on from the times that noticed Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer dominate on the Masters occasions. But Raonic nonetheless thought that their period of dominance meant different high 10 gamers had been shut out.
Raonic crashed out within the round-of-16 of the Canadian Open after making a triumphant return at residence. Now ranked at No 545 on this planet, he acquired a wildcard and shocked No 9 seed Frances Tiafoe within the first spherical earlier than outing Taro Daniel in his second match.
The 33-year-old was as soon as one of many challengers to the Big Three throne, downing Federer to succeed in the Wimbledon last in 2016 and reaching a career-high rating of No 3. But Raonic has now admitted that it was powerful to stay as much as expectations set by the likes of Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and even Andy Murray.
“I don’t know. For me, obviously, I haven’t played enough of the top guys to know, but I would actually say it’s a little bit the opposite,” the Canadian stated when requested whether or not the extent of his rivals was now greater with guys within the high 50 capable of upset high seeds.
Instead, Raonic thought that it was as a result of Federer had retired whereas Djokovic and Nadal now not prioritised the Masters occasions. He defined” “I think just three guys, to have three exemplary kind of legendary athletes in one sport, not even in one generation, period, but in one sport at the same time, you kind of mess up with everybody’s expectation of what is normal; right?”
“If you look back at a lot of tournaments, yeah, you would have the three of them playing. Obviously, I’m talking, like, when all the three guys were taking Masters series seriously. I think, you know, we’ve kind of forgotten a little bit now because it’s been kind of just a pure focus on Grand Slams for them for the last couple years.”
And the eight-time title winner thought that he was one of many gamers who had been caught up of their prime, leaving them to advance to the latter levels whereas different high stars outdoors of that high 4 can be prone to upsets. “But when I was first on tour, it was pretty much them and Andy,” he continued.
“Pretty much, I would say, 60 per cent, 70 per cent of the semi-finals were them. And maybe when it came to clay, David Ferrer was kind of the guy changing things up a little bit. So, yeah, you had three guys that were there all the time and winning most of the events.
“But I think you were still seeing the same kind of thing, the rotation of guys from 16 to 5 in the world, let’s say, that were kind of maybe losing early in events. You know, they weren’t — like, it’s not like every week the top eight seeds were all in the quarters; right? So it’s quite different.”
Raonic did confess to getting caught up within the expectations set by the Big Three himself, including: “I think three guys just messed with everybody’s expectations for a long time. In sport, and just in a lot of things, we have a very short-term memory, and I’m guilty of that as well.”
But he thought that the present state of the lads’s tour was paying homage to tennis earlier than Federer first burst onto the scene and was later joined by Nadal and Djokovic. Raonic stated: “But tennis was quite different before Roger came around. And then, you know, I think it’s just this kind of next period is probably what tennis — obviously, Novak is still around, and he’s still going to be very involved in later stages of Grand Slams.
“But I think it’s kind of like what tennis was when Andre and Sampras were kind of aging out a little bit; right? You have a lot of different players that will win slams. And if you look at history and you just look at the trend, there’s many players with one or two. And then, you know, the higher up you go with the numbers, the quantity of players there drops off. I think just three guys really messed with everybody’s calibre — or recalibration of what’s normal.”