Big Three news: Coach believes levelled out surfaces helped sustain their dominance

Tennis News
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic

Renowned coach Gabriel Jaramillo who worked with the likes of Maria Sharapova and Monica Seles believes the standardisation of court surfaces helped the Big Three of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer maintain their dominance over the rest of the tennis world.

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.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rafa Nadal (@rafaelnadal)

“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,” Jaramillo told Punto de Break.

“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.

“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.”

However so far in the 2022 season, this hasn’t rung as true as it used to.

While Nadal won the Happy Slam and made it to the final of the Indian Wells Masters, he’s now injured and could be a doubt for this favourite competition – the French Open.

Djokovic hasn’t been able to play in that many tournaments due to the restrictions on unvaccinated players in certain countries and tournaments, but he’s managed to make it to the final of the Serbian Open with the game still yet to be player, and he’s been allowed to play in the French Open and the Italian Open.

Meanwhile, Federer is still recovering from his injury after he had an operation on his right knee but is hoping to return at the end of the summer or the start of autumn.

Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal Roger Federer

Latest