"Everybody had their own style, attitude and personality" - Tennis great Jimmy Connors compares his era to that of the Big Three

The era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, produced some of the finest rivalries in tennis history. However, tennis legend Jimmy Connors believes his era of tennis had a distinct difference from that of the Big Three.

Connors battled against the likes of Bjorn Borg and Jon McEnroe, in what was known as the Golden Era of tennis. The trio ended their respective careers after winning multiple Grand Slam titles, with Borg leading the way with 11, whereas Connors had eight and McEnroe finished with seven.

In the latest episode of his Advantage Connors podcast, the retired American pro compared his era of tennis to that of the Big Three and their successors.

"Going back to talking about mine [era],” began Connors. “Everybody had their own style, and attitude and personality. We were mixing three into the one. We knew that at the time it was in the late 60’s early 70’s tennis needed a change, to go from small stadiums to 20,000 seat stadiums.
It just happened to be at a time when you had a bunch of guys who not only were good but had their own style and personality and were big in their own countries.
“Tennis at that time was pretty international too. And so we had clay court players and fast court players and serve and volley players and guys like [Bjorn] Borg who weren’t afraid to stay back and then surprise and do something different along the way.

"Then you get into this era with Djokovic, Nadal and Federer and you kind of had the same thing. They had their own games. Nobody is going to play like Nadal, it’s impossible, you can’t do it. Federer the same.
“Djokovic the same way once he started moving forward, he changed his game to make a move which said if I am going to beat these guys I am going to have to do this (make a change)."