“Wimbledon and US Open this year showed that there’s more to men's tennis than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal” - Alexandra Stevenson
Former American tennis player Alexandra Stevenson believes men's tennis can move on from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Stevenson highlighted Carlos Alcaraz winning the Wimbledon Championships and Novak Djokovic winning the US Open this year to reinforce her point.
In her debut appearance on "Match Point Canada," a tennis podcast on Spotify, Stevenson talked about both Wimbledon and the US Open. She opined that men's tennis was a whole new ball game without Federer and Nadal in the mix, and with other players stealing the show.
The 42-year-old American also said there are a few other players who have a shot at Grand Slam glory.
“I think Wimbledon and US Open this year showed that there’s more to now Roger and Rafa and Andy Murray. I mean Andy Murray is still playing and he’s stilll exciting to watch but there is more to men’s tennis to watch than those three and then there is now a handful of guys that are exciting, maybe even more than a handful maybe there is six guys that could win Grand Slams right now, even though Novak is just dominating (laughs)," Stevenson said.
She further highlighted the names of the players who did well at the Majors this year, saying they were the ones to watch out for in the future.
“Medvedev, you have him, you have got Alcaraz, obviously, you got Novak, I could even throw in Rublev, even though he hasn’t gone past the quarters, I mean the guy has gone to how many quarterfinals? ('Nine of them now,' the host replies). Yeah that’s impressive. So you have got, I mean Ben Shelton. He’s not ready to win a Grand Slam but who knows? Maybe the draw opens up and he could do it. So could Frances Tiafoe," she added.
The former World No. 18 believes Carlos Alcaraz has revitalized men's tennis in the absence of Federer and Nadal.
“So I feel like this US Open was important for the tennis world again to see on the men’s side, there are lot of new characters and there are more and they are exciting and their personality and I feel like Alcaraz is leading the charge obviously and he has really invigorated the men’s game after people being upset that Roger and Rafa are not playing," she said.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal aren’t the greatest of all time, according to Jimmy Connors
According to Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal cannot be called the greatest players of all time given Novak Djokovic's domination. Speaking on the "Advantage Connors" podcast, the American icon claimed that Federer and Nadal were not even the best in their generation.
"It comes to a point where a lot of people think he’s [Djokovic] 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.