Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas poses with the trophy after winning the ATP Open 13 Provence tennis tournament in Marseille recently. (Getty Images)
Stefanos Tsitsipas believes that the Big 3 can ‘always find solutions to everything’ after both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic crashed out the Monte-Carlo Masters.
Tsitsipas just breezed through the recently concluded Monte-Carlo Masters as he beat ‘big fish’ Andrey Rublev in straight sets ( 6-3, 6-3) in the final.
The tournament had two of the biggest names participating as well – Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic(Two of the Big 3). While Nadal made it up to the quarterfinals, Djokovic crashed out in the Round of 16.
The opponents Nadal and Djokovic lost to, faced Tsitsipas in the semi-final and final respectively. Djokovic fell to Dan Evans of the United Kingdom in straight sets, whereas Nadal went down fighting to the finalist Rublev.
The other man in the Big 3, Roger Federer is still not fully fit, as he came back after a year taking part in last month’s Qatar Open. He then once again announced that he will be resting for a while to be fully fit for the Roland Garros, if not, the Wimbledon.
After his victory against Dan Evans in the semi final, Tsitsipas told EuroSport that the Big 3 always find a way to keep coming back despite getting old and believed that the Big 3 were back at their best.
He said:
“Everyone likes to think that they’re getting older. In fact, they are getting older. It doesn’t seem to bother them at all.” [via EuroSport]
He then went on to reveal, how they are hardly affected by long breaks:
“Well, you know, they seem to have been doing well in the past, having big breaks like this. I wouldn’t say many of them have been affected by big breaks like this. They seem to be back in shape, the same way consistent like before, despite of having like a two-, three-month break. They seem to be adjusting pretty well to their new conditions with minimal play.” [via EuroSport]
He continued :
“I don’t know whether it’s that. They always find solutions to everything. That’s what makes them great players and kind of like the legends of our sport. They can handle the situations very well.” [via EuroSport]
The Big 3 are well over their 30s, but they seldom fail to win a Grand Slam. Even the recently concluded Australian Open was won by Djokovic; Nadal is the defending French Open champion; Federer has been plagued by injuries and hasn’t participated in any Grand Slam event since Australian Open 2020.
Hence, it is safe to say that the Big 3 are not really fading, amidst rising speculation that they are.
Federer is slowly getting back to full fitness, after a troublesome knee. There were a lot of speculations about Federer skipping the French Open, in a bid to make it to his beloved Wimbledon.
However, King Roger took to Twitter to confirm his participation in the French Open. He also revealed that he will be participating in the Geneva Open, ahead of Roland Garros.
He tweeted:
Hi everyone! Happy to let you know that I will play Geneva and Paris. Until then I will use the time to train. Can’t wait to play in Switzerland again
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