“The idea was to make Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic continue competing,” Gabriel Jaramillo shockingly reveals how the Big 3 got an unfair advantage courtesy of surface standardization
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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
The Big Three of tennis, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer have reached the dizzying heights in tennis and their achievements are unparalleled. They all have very different playing styles and different strengths. They have played each other on every surface and they have gone toe to toe against each other on all those surfaces.
Gabriel Jaramillo, the coach of Nick Bollettieri’s academy in Bradenton has given his insights on why the standardization of tennis courts was done in the mid-2000s. The three best players of the generations had to compete with each other and their millions of fans love to see them compete in an attempt to find who is the best among them. The ATP was trying to make the surface suit all of their styles equally because then it would be very interesting to see who comes on top.
Nadal had a brutish style where he had followed every ball and fought tooth and nail for every point. Federer on the other hand liked to have more control of the pace of the game and often take them in long rallies. Djokovic was a mix of both their styles and he was mid-way between them. So, to balance them out the courts had to be changed quite a lot.
‘It was the only way to keep people glued to the TV’: Gabriel Jaramillo on the unfair advantage the Big 3 got
Gabriel Jaramillo said for the big three: “At that time, Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic were playing very well. I think the intention of this surface change was for the three to be able to compete every week because they had the biggest audience.”
“The tournaments were made on purpose for this. They knew that if the court was too fast, Nadal might not go that far; and that if the court was too slow, Federer would fall into the water. The idea was that they could always compete against each other, it was the only way to keep people glued to the TV.”
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Prateek Sinha
(365 Articles Published)