Finding a path to victory even on a bad day: the power behind the Big Three's dominance

Former American player and famous tennis coach Brad Gilbert has highlighted what made the ‘Big Three’ separate from the rest of the players of their generation. The original ‘Big Three’ consisted of Switzerland’s Roger Federer, Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic. The three dominated men’s tennis like never before, and each managed to win at least 20 Grand Slam titles.

Gilbert, a famous tennis coach currently working with America’s young tennis sensation Coco Gauff, was recently quoted in a report where he highlighted what Federer, Nadal and Djokovic from the other players. The 62-year-old argued that what made those three players great was that they always found a way to win matches, regardless of how good or bad they looked on the court. Gilbert believed that the art of winning matches despite not being at your best is what separates the best from the rest.

“Their games look beautiful, but they would all tell you that probably the most important type of matches to win is early in the tournament, maybe when things weren’t right that day and they found a way to win and then tomorrow they could look beautiful,” he said. “That’s the subtle thing of being great: there is probably a huge percentage of matches where you are average but their average is better than everyone else’s. But you still have to figure out how to be successful on those days when you don’t feel a hundred percent physically or mentally. You need an ugly day to become beautiful a hundred percent.”

Federer retired from tennis in September 2022 after struggling with fitness concerns. He finished his career with 20 major titles and was the first player ever in the history of men’s tennis to achieve that. Nadal, on the other hand, has already announced that the 2024 season would be his last. He has won 22 Grand Slams in his illustrious career. Fourteen of those titles came at the French Open, so he is also known as the ‘King of Clay’. Djokovic remains active and is the most successful player in the history of men’s tennis, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.