John McEnroe highlights Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic 'problem'

For many years the Next Gen have been tipped to take over the tennis mantle from Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic but John McEnroe has highlighted a problem.

The likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev have been knocking on the Big Three’s door.

But McEnroe feels the youngsters are just not good enough to dethrone the greatest players that have ever lived.

“You look at a guy like Rafael Nadal, who’s perhaps the modern-day Jimmy Connors, and the guy brings it every point,” McEnroe told Eurosport’s Tennis Legends vodcast.

“I don’t see those other players – every point – bringing it, and you have got to.

“The other problem is that these three players – Federer, Nadal and Djokovic – are the three best players that have ever lived, they are better than these other guys. That is the part you cannot escape.

“We don’t want it to be the case that these new guys don’t win anything until the likes of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer all stop. It’s crazy.

“You want to see Thiem beat Nadal on clay, you want to see Tsitsipas go and win a major – right now he just looks totally overwhelmed mentally.

“Medvedev is the one for me, he’s the guy that mentally gets it. I remember seeing him last year when he played Djokovic and it looked like a 12 and under match, you were just asking what is he doing against someone so sound as Djokovic but yet he believed in that and stuck with it.

“Medvedev is different and he’s awkward. He found another gear against Nadal – he didn’t win it, it would have been awesome had he have done as it would have shown his approach had paid off, but he’s right there.

“I don’t see any of the other guys that close at all – we need more of that mentality.”

McEnroe also explained that a lack of experience makes it difficult for the youngster to switch up their game plan mid-match.

He added: “For me, it’s not physical. If you look at [Denis] Shapovalov, he’s got the body and physique, even Felix Auger Aliassime – another Canadian – who I both think will win a Grand Slam and both I think will be in the top five.

“But they’ve got to be bitterly disappointed. It’s more the mental part, but technically they haven’t advanced their games enough and they think it’s just going to happen.

“You need to have a plan B or plan C if it’s not working particularly well.

“When you saw Federer play against [John] Millman, he’s 38 years old, his opponent is playing out of his mind, and is really taking it to him – you can see his mind working, trying to figure out how do I break this guy down.

“Federer tried four, five, six different things. He’d bring him in with the slice, he hit top spin, he tried to go down the line, he moved more cross-court, he started serving and volleying, he tried to bring Millman in – all those things happened within the match and he still barely won it.

“I want to see Shapovalov and some of these young players make adjustments on the fly and that’s what the big thing is.”

source: express.co.uk