Alexander Zverev says Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era was still lower level overall than men's tennis today

The World No.2, Alexander Zverev, believes that the overall competition in modern-day tennis is much higher than the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic era. He thinks the level apart from the top 10 players is very high.

Zverev was the top seed at the Madrid Open. He was knocked out in the tournament's fourth round at the hands of Argentine clay court specialist, Francisco Cerundolo, in straight sets. Sascha, as Zverev is fondly called by fans, won the BMW Open in Munich before coming to Madrid, which hinted that he had found his rhythm, but Cerundolo completely raffled the German by hitting winners all around the court.

In the post-match press conference, Zverev was asked whether it’s much easier to reach the top 10 or stay in the top 10 today than it used to be during the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era. To which Zverev replied:

“No, definitely not. It's much more difficult. The depth of players is much more. Before, I remember when I got to the top 10 for the first time in 2017, it was eight years ago. Yes, the top 10 was very strong, and we had the four best players in the world with Novak, Rafa, Roger, Andy, Stan, you know, del Potro and all those guys, but the level from, I would say, 10 to 20 and then 20 to 30 was much lower than it is now. Yes, the top of the top was unbelievable, but the depth now is much more.”

While he agreed that the top players, including Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Wawrinka, and Del Potro, were superb, apart from that, the overall level of other tennis players was not of the same quality. In his opinion, that is not the case in today’s tennis, where the quality of players ranging from the top 10 to 30 is also extremely high and can beat any of the top 10 players regularly.

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Alexander Bublik also talked about the depth in men’s tennis in today’s era at the Madrid Open

Alexander Bublik at the Mutua Madrid Open - Source: Getty

Alexander Bublik had reached the fourth round of the Mutua Madrid Open but was knocked out by 19-year-old Jakub Mensik, 6-3, 6-2. He had played decent tennis till that stage, defeating notable players in the previous rounds like the seventh seed, Andrey Rublev, in the third round and the 25th seed, Alexei Popyrin, in the second.

During the changeovers, the camera caught Bublik complaining about the level of tennis players in the modern era to the chair umpire, Mohamed Lahyani.

"Mohamed, remember when tennis was easy? Five years ago, it was super easy to play tennis. You had a bunch of random people in the Top 50, barely moving. Now this guy [Mensik] is not even Top 10. The **** is that?" Bublik said.

Lahyani did not respond to anything that Bublik said, but just smiled at him. Bublik is himself a former top 20 player, but has now slipped to No. 75 due to the emergence of new-age players playing a high level of tennis.

There is conclusive evidence that the ‘big four’ dominated the whole generation, and there was hardly anyone who could challenge their supremacy, barring a few occasions which were few and far between.