Tomas Berdych doesn't blame the Big 3 for preventing him from winning a Grand Slam
What's the story?
Former World No. 4 Tomas Berdych announced his retirement from tennis towards the end of 2019. And as expected, his recent interviews have been predominantly reflective ones regarding his career.
Of all the questions he's been asked, perhaps the most interesting one was whether Berdych felt the Big 3 had stifled his career and had prevented him from winning a Grand Slam title. However, the Czech refused to blame them and instead spoke positively about all three.
In case you didn't know...
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are collectively known as the "Big 3" due to their peerless dominance over tennis. Since 2003, the three legends have won virtually all of the meaningful prizes between them and have created perhaps the greatest golden era of any sport.
The heart of the matter
Reflecting on the dominance of the Big 3, Berdych remarked:
"Someone tells me that if they were not there, I could have won one or two Grand Slams. Of course, if...
"But if they were not there, my tennis level would have not that high because they would not have made me improve. And that's this way for all the players because everyone wants to reach and beat them. You need to constantly improve."
He concluded by acknowledging that the dominance of the Big 3 was "a unique moment for tennis that never happened before."
What's next?
Berdych is not the only player to whom this hypothetical argument applies. Whether it's believing Andy Roddick would have won 5-6 more slams if not for Federer or David Ferrer winning the French if not for Nadal, there are countless "what if" examples of surrounding the Big 3's dominance.
However, as Berdych has suggested, we should not view the Big 3 as stifling the careers of others, but instead as raising the level of tennis to new heights never seen before. That's also been seen with the NextGen of players; the likes of Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev have been forced to improve their level in order to compete with the Big 3.