Jimmy Connors has rejected the claims that his remarks about Novak Djokovic were suggestive of belittling the greatness of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Former world No. 1 Connors in a recent podcast claimed that Djokovic is starting to lose motivation in the absence of Nadal and Federer and could call it quits in the wake of Alcaraz’s rise as he proved himself to be a force to reckon with at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
During the Advantage Connors podcast, the American touted Djokovic as the greatest player of all time, saying: “It comes to a point where a lot of people think he’s had enough. To me that’s bull***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.
“They think that maybe he’s had enough and it’s time for somebody else to come up. I look at it the other way, I say, ‘Kill it.’ Stay out there and play until somebody just comes up and beats your brains out because you always got a chance to win.”
His statement hurt the sentiments of some of Fedal fans with many perceiving the comments as dismissive of the duo’s greatness. However, in a follow-up on Advantage Connors, the 8-time Slam winner cleared the air by explaining that he didn’t intend to negate Nadal and Federer’s achievements as he was simply following the set standard for naming the GOAT which is the player with most Grand Slam wins.
“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’,” he said.
“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.
“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.
“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.”