"He’s forced Novak to give more, and he’s better because of it, and then Novak has helped Rafa get better": McEnroe on GOAT debate

John McEnroe talked about Djokovic, Nadal and Federer and how the GOAT debate benefited all of them by pushing them to do more.

There will probably never be an era similar to the big three era because the magnitude of what they were able to achieve is so great that it seems impossible to replicate. All of them have had incredible hunger to succeed and seeing the other two compete fueled all of them. McEnroe explained how they all benefitted from the GOAT debate.

He started off:

"The greatest single quality an athlete can have is that hunger, and no matter how successful you are, just being willing to do the hard yards and the work it requires to even give yourself a chance, and Rafa does that better than anyone. He keeps a humbleness and a cockiness at the same time, which is a tricky thing to manoeuvre, and he does an incredible job of that.

He’s able to figure out a way to make every match seem like he’s got to pay respect to his opponent, and he’s got to give 100 per cent effort. Very few players can do that, it’s an amazing quality and that’s why he’s won as much as he has."

McEnroe continued:

"You do believe with him that he’ll do anything and everything to get back and give himself that chance, and there are very few players you can say that about, that’s why there's so much respect for Rafa. With the players and anyone that watches the sport, you look at the guy and go, ‘oh god, how can that guy want it so much still, it looks like he's never won a major’.