“Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal Not Even the Greatest of Their Era”: Jimmy Connors Backs Novak Djokovic to Keep Going

American tennis legend Jimmy Connors featured in another podcast recently, which is titled ‘Advantage Connors’. He touched upon a number of ongoing discussions and recent events in the world of tennis, including the Wimbledon 2023 final in which Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic. And naturally, when men’s tennis is discussed, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal tend to feature too.

One avid follower of the podcast raised a question on what is being perceived by some as ‘harsh treatment’ that Djokovic receives at Wimbledon every year from the crowd despite the legacy that he has created. Connors answered the query by bringing up Federer and Nadal too, rather sensationally.

Jimmy Connors believes jealousy is the reason Novak Djokovic gets booed

While not being the biggest Novak Djokovic supporter in the tennis community, Jimmy Connors has an interesting answer. He opined that the tennis loving public in general across the globe besides his staunch fans, believe that Djokovic has won more than enough and that he should retire from the game. This may imply that it could be envy since a lot of people may not digest the fact that a man who was once considered as the third arm to the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal duopoly, has actually overtaken them in many aspects.

Connors then brought up Federer and Nadal directly by claiming that fans were quick to get on to their bandwagons the moment they started playing well, which made them create such a strong support network everywhere they went and played. However, Connors believes that the neither of the duo can be considered as the ‘Greatest of All Time’ in their own eras when they dominated since Djokovic started catching up and taking over not long after.

The American legend also hinted at the fact that much like Djokovic, he also suffered from hostility from the Wimbledon crowd and that is largely because of the fact that he wasn’t a conformist and a people pleaser like others. Motivating the 23-time Grand Slam champion, Connors was quoted as saying –

“It comes to a point where a lot of people think Djokovic has had enough. To me that’s bulls**t. Look at all the people that were on the Federer bandwagon and the Nadal bandwagon as the greatest of all time. They’re not even the greatest of all time in their own era.

“They think that it’s time for somebody else to come up. I look at it the other way, I say ‘Kill it.’ Stay out there and play until somebody just comes up and beats your brains out because you always got a chance to win.”

Is Alcaraz better than Nadal, Federer and Djokovic?

In the podcast prior to the latest one, Jimmy Connors made another stunning statement publicly. He indirectly claimed that the likes of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are nowhere near to Carlos Alcaraz at the moment. This also includes other older and experienced players on the ATP Tour. Connors boldly predicted that if Alcaraz stays humble and fit, nobody can stop him from winning at least 15 Grand Slams in the next 15 years to come.

Novak Djokovic too said in an interview after the Wimbledon final that Alcaraz is the perfect mix of himself, Nadal and Federer and that he has ‘never played against a player like him before’ in an ultimate tribute to the young Spanish star.