Tennis coach
Patrick Mouratoglou has cast doubts about
whether the younger generation has the fitness to match the achievements of the ‘Big
Three’.
In the world of men’s tennis, Switzerland’s Roger Federer, Spain’s
Rafael Nadal and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic dominated on the court for the good
part of the last two decades. It is because of this reason they are labelled as ‘Big
Three’.
Mouratoglou was recently quoted in a report where he stated that the
likes of Spain’s
Carlos Alcaraz, Italy’s
Jannik Sinner and Denmark’s Holger
Rune will only be able to achieve similar achievements if they have the fitness
to compete at the highest level.
"One of the main questions is physically, the three
guys are very young and have been injured already,” he said. “When you get
injured, you leave space, you let space for others to shine and start to build
their confidence.
"When you occupy the field, when you’re here, when
you’re winning, there’s no space for others. That’s why Novak [Djokovic], Rafa
[Nadal], and Roger [Federer], they cut the grass from under the feet of many
generations of guys who would’ve been on the top."
"Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and
Holger Rune are the
only three young players of that generation who have the complete package and
that’s why they are the three best and the potential Top 3 in the future.
"They’re incredibly ambitious, they’ve won a lot at a
very young age, and they have a very complete game. The real question is ‘How
are they going to prepare their bodies to be able to reign constantly for a
long time?’.”
