"I never said Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal aren’t great players, just that there’s a new guy on top" - Jimmy Connors addresses previous comments
Jimmy Connors has addressed his previous comments on Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, which had garnered criticism from the duo's fans.
While discussing the Wimbledon 2023 final, Connors argued that Federer and Nadal could not be considered the greatest players of their era, primarily because of the rise and subsequent dominance of Novak Djokovic.
"It comes to a point where a lot of people think he’s had enough. To me that’s bulls**t. Look at all the people that were on the Federer bandwagon and the Nadal bandwagon as the greatest of all time. They’re not even the greatest of all time in their own era," he said.
The American's comments were not received kindly by Federer and Nadal's fans. In response to the criticism, the former World No. 1 pointed out that the fans themselves played a significant role in shifting the focus of the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) debate towards Grand Slam titles alone.
"They’ve made the rules that the Grand Slams have become the important thing. You know, ‘He’s won this many Grand Slams and that’s why he’s the best.’ For me, I go back to every day, every match, every tournament, every year, it seems that that changed in the past 15-20 years, where it’s all about Grand Slams and how many you win," he said on the latest episode of the Advantage Connors podcast.
However, the 70-year-old clarified that his intention wasn't to disparage the Swiss and the Spaniard. Instead, he was merely pointing out that they had been surpassed by Djokovic in the Grand Slam tally, which had become the deciding factor in the debate.
"I'm not saying and I never said that Federer and Nadal aren’t the great players that they are, I just said that there’s a new guy on the top of the heap, that’s all. And he’s won the most Grand Slams at the moment," he said.
"I was not saying that they are not great players and I’m not in the kiss-ass business anyway. I’m not going to say they are or if they’re not. They are and they’ve proven that and they’ve proven it for 15, 16, 17, whatever amount of years that they’ve been playing, with the amount of Grand Slams that they’ve won. I’m just saying that the rules were set on the importance of the Grand Slams. That’s all I’m saying," he added.
"Roger Federer was the greatest because he surpassed Pete Sampras; if it's all about Grand Slams then Novak Djokovic is the best, right?" - Jimmy Connors' son Brett
Jimmy Connors' son Brett also shared his opinion on the GOAT debate, noting that it began to center around Grand Slam titles once Roger Federer surpassed Pete Sampras' record of 14 Major titles.
"It changed around when Sampras got to 14 and then Federer came along and was dominating the first half of the 2000’s and winning a lot of Grand Slams. Then what determined the best-ever became all about the Grand Slams," he said.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion surpassed Sampras' record when he defeated Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6(6), 7-6(5), 3-6, 16-14 in the 2009 Wimbledon Championship final.
Brett Connors emphasized that Novak Djokovic's status as the GOAT was only natural since he held the Grand Slam record, just as the Swiss was hailed as the greatest when he swept past Sampras.
"Fed was tracking down Sampras. And once he had, that meant Fed was the greatest and why, because he had passed Sampras in Grand Slams right? Now, if it’s all about Grand Slams and Djokovic now has 23 then I guess he’s the best, right?" he added.