“His generation really wasn't [Rafael] Nadal and [Novak] Djokovic” Roger Federer’s agent sparks debate about the famous rivalry of ‘Big Three’

Tony Godsick, the agent of Roger Federer, has made an interesting claim about which generation of players the former world number one actually belong to. The 44-year-old is often regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men’s tennis in the singles category, having won as many as 20 Grand Slam titles.

Federer’s dominance in men’s tennis was challenged by two other players, Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic. Nadal, who retired from the sport back in 2024, finished his career with 22 major titles, whereas Djokovic, who is the only active player out of the three, has won 24 Grand Slam titles in his illustrious career.

The three formed what is famously known as the ‘Big Three’ as they dominated men’s tennis like never before. Despite having such a great rivalry, Federer’s longstanding agent, Godsick, believes that the eight-time Wimbledon champion does not belong to the generation of Nadal and Djokovic.

While speaking in the recent episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Godsick was of the opinion that Federer actually belonged to the generation of Roddick, Russia’s Marat Safin, Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and Argentina’s David Nalbandian. “So, um, I, you know, I always say he, his generation really wasn't Nadal and Djokovic,” Godsick. “It was you and, and Safin and Albanian and, you know, yeah. And, and, and Layton and these guys. So, um, so they were completely different.”

Federer, during his career, has won numerous endorsements, not only on the court but also off it. Godisck then explained how Federer’s ability to speak multiple languages helped him in getting the sponsors on board that he wanted. Godsick also highlighted that Federer was keen to have a few brands associated with him, but the ones which would stick with him for a long time.

“I think the language thing helped Roger a lot, you know,” said Godsick. “Roger speaks perfect English, obviously speaks German, French, you know, uh, so, so I think that helped. Um, and that was different, you know, Rafa, um, you know, Roger had, we had a strategy to every single thing we did. We thought like, okay, let's not accept the deal. If someone's going to scratch their head saying, I don't quite understand the association. And that's one strategy. I'm not saying that's the right strategy, but that was our strategy. Others had strategies where if it was a really great deal and it made sense, but you know, from a financial standpoint or time management standpoint or whatever it might be, um, let's just do it. And that's a great strategy too, because you don't know how long the career is going to last. And that was really, that was very interesting with Roger. He wanted a few select partners that he could sort of grow with for a long period of time. You know, I did not think that, you know, basically three years being retired now that he'd still have 13 sponsors.”

Godsick continued by saying: “And a lot of them have been contracted for over 20 years. I mean, think of the likes of Rolex and, and Mercedes and Credit Swiss, which is now UBS and, you know, Lint. And I mean, these are, they keep renewing. And so we chose the let's first-class blue chip, global brands that we could grow with and they would become part of our family. It just wouldn't be a, um, you know, a contract and we show up and do it. And it's over after three years that we would become part of the family. And that's what's happened. And in some cases it gets kind of sad is he outlived some of the management. Now it's some of these brands, which, you know, is you, you spent all this time getting to know some of these wonderful people and they retire or whatever it might be, but they were just different came from different places. I think Roger being Swiss, I said this once years ago, and I'll say this again, one of the greatest things about managing Roger was he Swiss. I mean, just think about it. Rolex, um, you know, it was easy to get Roger over to Rolex because Rolex is a Swiss brand. He was number one in the world. They were a Wimbledon sponsor. He was holding up the trophy. And, and so that was, you know, small country and a half million people, but big brands, Lindt chocolate. Um, obviously the on story, um, you know, that was a Swiss brand. I think that played a big role. So they were just different, different geographies. And Roger loved going to China too. You know, Roger was one of the few people that sort of opened up sort of that part of the world for the ATP, uh, tour. And he was very comfortable travelling all around the world, which helped as well. So they were just different, but they're all great.”

Godsick is the co-founder of Team8, which is the parent organisation of the Laver Cup. The team-based competition was recently organised, where Team World came out on top against a star-studded Team Europe. While speaking about the overall experience of the competition, Godsick stated that this year was probably the best in the competition’s history. Godsick also explained that not many gave Team World a chance to overcome Team Europe, but credited the captain Andre Agassi and vice-captain Pat Raftar for producing an incredible result on the court.

“Well, this one was very unique because this was, from all metrics, this was our best one yet,” said Godsick. “So there was a lot of people coming up to us like, come back, come back soon. And we're like, OK, but we're moving on to London next year. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of work with the sponsors to find out what they like, what they didn't like. You know, talk to a lot of our constituents, a lot of fans, a lot of the players, make sure we get the players off onto their flights to Asia and just digest what took place. I mean, it was really exciting. We had our eighth sellout, which was incredible. We had, I mean, the action was, I mean, no one would have predicted on paper that Team World actually could win. I mean, tribute to and credit to Andre Agassi, who put together, he and Pat Rafter put together one of the most incredible coaching things. But we can get there later. Just digesting what went on and seeing how we can do better. We tend to, if you wait too long after an event, you tend to forget some of the things that went well, what didn't go well and stuff. So just a whole debrief and then on to London”