Tennis broadcaster highlights reason behind Novak Djokovic not receiving similar support compared to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal
Tennis broadcaster Marcus Buckland believes that Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has never received the kind of admiration received by the likes of Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The 36-year-old is often regarded as the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis in the Open era, having won as many as 24 Grand Slam titles.Djokovic, along with Federer and Nadal, as often called the ‘Big 3’ in men’s tennis as the three dominated the sport for good part of 20 years.
Interestingly, despite winning more titles than his two closest rivals, Djokovic has not been able to to gather the support enjoyed by Federer and Nadal, probably because they started dominating men’s tennis some time before the arrival of the current world number one.
Buckland was recently quoted in a report where he admitted that despite his on-court achievements, Djokovic has not been able to get the support he deserves.
“You don’t often appreciate the greats of sport until they have gone, but I suspect Novak will always be fighting for that,” he said. “There is great admiration for him, there already is and that will only grow as the years go by.
“Where he is unlucky is he spent most of his career up against the two most popular tennis players of all-time. Novak has got an incredible amount of supporters and they are passionate, there is no doubt about that.
“But Federer, I always remember at the 02 Arena in London for the ATP Finals and all of his sessions were sold out as people didn’t want to miss the chance to see him.
“Nadal has basically garnered the same sort of admiration and love from his supporters and unfortunately for Novak, he has come through at a time when he was up against two remarkable individuals and that was always going to be challenging for him. For that reason, he might not quite get the admiration he deserves.”
Leave a Reply