Gabriel Jaramillo thinks levelling out surfaces sustained the Big Three

Renowned coach Gabriel Jaramillo who worked with the likes of Sharapova and Seles believes the standardisation surfaces helped Djokovic, Nadal and Federer maintain their dominance.

All three have at least 20 Grand Slam titles to their names, with Nadal edging the other two as he currently sits on 21 after his win at the Australian Open at the beginning of this season. However, all three used to find themselves in finals facing each other week in week out, and Jaramillo doesn’t think this is by coincidence.

He said:

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“Surfaces were levelled out around the mid-2000s when the Big Three were starting to dominate, this move was aimed at allowing Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to remain competitive. The three monsters had the ability to transcend tennis, managing to attract even non-regular spectators, tournaments on the circuit live above all this – if the surface had been too fast, there was a risk of Rafael Nadal’s premature exit."

He further said:

“On the contrary, if the ground had been too slow, Roger Federer might have been in trouble, the idea was that they could face each other frequently, it was the only way to keep people glued to the television.”