With 7 Grand Slams under his belt, Mats Wilander is one of the most famous tennis stars to emerge out of Sweden. Wilander has shown his support for Nadal since many years. Be it calling the Spaniard’s 2022 Australian Open win as the ‘greatest comeback of the Open era’ or considering him as the most important tennis player of all-time, Wilander has not cared about other opinions. It’s only now that he seems to have changed his loyalties to Novak Djokovic and for good reason.
Ahead of Wimbledon 2024, Mats Wilander spoke about the Big 3 and their respective auras and skills. When speaking about Novak Djokovic, he only had praises for him. Eurosport shared a post on Instagram, that quoted Wilander as saying –
“With Novak Djokovic, we didn’t see his greatness because his greatness was more inside of him than on the outside. I think with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the greatness you could see it. You could see it in the shot, in the technique.”
“What we didn’t realize is that there were no weaknesses anywhere in his game on any surface. I Federer has a weakness. Nadal has weaknesses. Djokovic doesn’t really have a weakness.”
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For the longest time, Djokovic has been far less popular than Nadal and Federer. While his antics have a role to play in that, many fans also didn’t quite get a grasp on his superior abilities on any court.
In a way, Wilander’s comments about Djokovic echo what John McEnroe recently said about the Serb being considered a villain.
How John McEnroe and Mats Wilander Switched Sides to Novak Djokovic
For the longest time, Novak Djokovic loyalists have claimed that their idol has not received enough respect and the credit he deserves, as compared to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Djokovic’s wildly unpopular opinions and his on-court behavior at times haven’t made it easy for many fans to love him.
However, Novak Djokovic deserves a lot more praise for helping tennis grow in his own way by taking it to the next level. John McEnroe and Mats Wilander are amongst legends who are now realising it.
McEnroe believes that it is admirable how Djokovic has managed to use his ‘unpopularity’ amongst crowds across the world and media criticism to boost himself successfully.
“Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have legendary reputations, deservedly so. They’ve been incredible. Novak Djokovic has not only equalled them but surpassed them in overall achievements, which seemed impossible.”
“Both of those guys, Rafa and Roger, they are total class acts. They are loved and respected around the world. Novak gets the unfair treatment. He’s the villain, the bad guy.
“I think it’s been unfair, honestly, because he is great for the game. On and off the court. He’s been able to do something that I wasn’t able to do nearly as well which is turning lemons into lemonade. You know, when people want to see the underdog or someone else winning, he somehow uses that as fuel to help him. That’s an incredible quality which you can’t underestimate,” McEnroe was quoted as saying in an interview with Metro recently.
Novak Djokovic has a golden chance to win his 25th Grand Slam and extend his lead in the all-time Majors count. Djokovic has confirmed that he will play Wimbledon 2024 and is the second seed, despite fears of his knee injury denying him this chance.
