Federer is well loved mainly because he is a beauty to watch.
No other tennis player (even in history) plays as effortlessly as he does. He does not run, he glides. He does not hit a forehand, he paints one. His serve is fluid motion. He does not force his shots, he allows them to happen.
When he is on the court, he looks incredibly relaxed. Not much frowning, his posture always confident and almost laid back. He doesn’t look at his box very often (something typical of older generation players) and this displays confidence in his own abilities. At one point when he was world number 1, he didn’t even have a coach!
He is comfortable everywhere on the court. In other words, he has a wide range of shot options. He is comfortable with volleys, overheads, playing baseline, has a great serve, dropshot etc. I struggle to think of any other player who comes close. He is the most complete player I have ever seen.
He is also very creative with his shots, especially when he was younger and more flexible. He has a couple of around the pole, reverse smash, baseline overhead passing shot, tweener passing shot, fake shot, backhand flick. He isn’t rigid, he is flowing. He doesn’t choose his shots, he simply uses what ever shot the situation calls for. All these make him a really exciting player to watch.
Also, Federer is such a gentleman. Even some of his on court arch rivals like Roddick cannot help but admit that they like him as a person. He is just so nice.
Now on to Nadal.
Nadal is a brute force of nature. He took the world by storm when he won his first Grand Slam at age 19. That is just insane.
At his peak, Nadal is a very terrifying prospect. Always unrelenting, and in my opinion, his mental toughness is unparalleled. You’d have to be mentally bullet proof to be the King of clay, the most grueling surface to play on in the tennis tour.
His court coverage, which translates to court defense is incredible when he was younger. Many players have a hard time playing against Nadal due to this reason. While one would normally need 1–2 winner-type shots to win a point against most players, against Nadal, you’d need to do more than that because he always gets the ball back.
Off the court though, Nadal is in complete contrast to his on court character. He seems mellow, shy even and always polite. He is no doubt a gentleman. I think it is this contrast that makes him so attractive.
Next, Djokovic.
I respect this man for what he has done. He is playing at such a high level now, he is very hard to beat.
He has one of the best (if not the best) return of serve, very consistent and strong baseline strokes and great court coverage.
However, Djokovic is not an exciting player to watch. He is more of a player who uses his skills to construct the point before going for an easy put-away. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that. You can’t argue with the results he has put up. But to me, he lacks the flair that Federer and Nadal so uniquely possess. He is the sort of player who does everything well enough to do the job. He is the sort of player whom when you think back on his career, you can’t really put your finger on why he is great. As a fan, it’s like driving a Rolls Royce. It’s nice, it’s smooth and all but deep inside, there is a voice calling out to you to switch to a Ferrari / Lamborghini.
To add on, there is another thing about Djokovic that makes it hard for me to respect him as much as I do Federer and Nadal. It is the way he carries himself and the way he treats others. He is infamous for retiring from matches when he had just started and this has drawn the irk of many players including Roddick and Federer.
If you follow tennis, you’d also know the Djokovic seems to get himself involved with alot of off the court antics with other top players. One particularly interesting incident is how he claimed that Nadal distanced himself from him after he rose to the top of the game. Well, that may or may not be true but come on, you are better than this. Just keep the game simple and not bring all these unnecessary stuff into the game.
Is he a gentleman? I’d have to think about that…
I don’t know the exact reason why Djokovic isn’t as well liked as Federer and Nadal but the reasons I have given above are what my tennis friends and I can agree on when we discuss about the likability of Djokovic.
Picture Source ESPN
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