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Marion Bartoli, former Wimbledon champion, spoke about the Big 3 Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The Frenchwoman granted an interview to Tennis365.com, talking about the characteristics that differentiate the three greatest champions in the history of tennis, also underlining the differences of love that the crowd felt for them.
Bartoli explained: "It was more the timing than anything. If you talk to all the players and fans around the world, people like Novak's personality and have a lot of respect for his game. Roger Federer speaks elegance, Rafael Nadal, on the other hand, was considered a fighter who won 14 times at Roland Garros.
But nobody likes the third party Novak Djokovic. If Novak had had just one other major competitor, he would have had a much larger fan base. I think he's gained everyone's respect, but when it comes to love it's a little different.
It's just human nature to cheer for one or the other and you don't want the third."
Roger Federer is not done with tennis yet
The Swiss will not return to play, as the Swiss tennis player has repeatedly stressed during the interviews released after his retirement.
However, he will return to an event dear to him: the Laver Cup. Federer will be celebrated on Friday, September 22 at this year's Laver Cup, which will be held in Vancouver, Canada. The 20-time Grand Slam champion will toss the coin for the final game on Friday night and then return to the court for an interview with Jim Courier.
The former world number one, therefore, will make an appearance in the last tournament of his professional career. Because just in September of last year, the King gave his last farewell to tennis. In a match that took place on Friday, in the closing doubles of the program: he and Rafael Nadal against Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock.
It is not the first time that Roger Federer returns to a tennis court that he has walked on, on the occasion of tournaments that he has won. It's happened twice already. The first, also in 2023, in Halle. On the anniversary of the tournament, the player with the most titles, i.e.
10, returned to celebrate 30 years of the tournament. Then, perhaps the most important of the celebrations, the one at Wimbledon. There where he triumphed 8 times, no one like him in the history of the All England Club, Roger Federer was in the royal box.
Alongside his wife Mirka and Princess Kate Middleton. He has watched matches on Center Court at Wimbledon. To Elena Rybakina and above all to Andy Murray, his rival in these twenty years. Exchanges between the British tennis player and the Swiss, but from different points of view compared to what the two had accustomed us over the years, also and above all at the All England Club.