Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will be succeeded by six stars

Andrea Gaudenzi has addressed the eventual post-Big Three future as he tipped six stars to carry the torch from Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The ATP Chairman claimed that the sport wouldn’t suffer when the two tennis legends eventually joined Roger Federer in retirement but admitted that the current cross-generational era was one of the most interesting, touting the likes of US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz for future success.

The Big Three have long been viewed as the pinnacle of men’s tennis, continuing to break each other’s records with the motivation of making history. But tennis faces the harsh reality that their golden era is well on the decline with Federer already retired and the last few years ahead of Djokovic and Nadal, while the Spaniard continues to struggle with injuries.

With men’s tennis searching for its next great champions, the ATP Chairman believes there are already six players stepping up and battling with the likes of Djokovic and Nadal who can eventually take over when they retire. “I really believe that the tennis game, the product, is fantastic,” Gaudenzi told Globo.

The Italian former pro backed the upcoming generation to fulfil the gap of the Big Three in the same way that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic did in the post-Agassi era as he continued: “As you know, we survive different generations, from the generation of Vilas, Borg, McEnroe, Wilander, Becker, then Agassi, Sampras.

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“Everyone was like, ‘Look, it’s going to be a big gap after Agassi and Sampras,’who were really, really popular in the 90s when I was playing. Then we meet Rafa, Roger and Novak, who are breaking all the records. I never heard anyone say that any player could win more slams than Sampras (14) and in the last 15 years we have three players breaking all records.”

And Gaudenzi was excited with the current state of the ATP Tour while Djokovic and Nadal were still in action alongside two different generations of young stars – those in their mid-twenties like Daniil Medvedev and the teenage sensations like Carlos Alcaraz. “Generally speaking, I think we’re in a great place,” he said.

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“Because we have the old generation, with Rafa and Novak still playing, and the very, very new generation, which we call the ‘Next Gen’, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune. I think we also have a great “half” generation, Felix [Auger-Aliassime], [Daniil] Medvedev, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas. All these guys are big personalities. I think it can’t get any better than that because we have three generations obviously battling for the biggest titles in tennis.”

Players like Alcaraz and Medvedev have already been able to prove themselves on the biggest stages, as both men have a Grand Slam title to their name and have already been No 1 in the world. Last year the Spaniard was the youngest man in history to reach the top of the rankings and the first teenager since Nadal to win a Major, while fellow teenager Holger Rune upset Djokovic in the final of the Paris Masters to win the biggest title of his career.

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