"This will never, ever, ever happen again" - McEnroe on Nadal winning 14 trophies at one Grand Slam
ATP
Rafael Nadal won his 14th Roland Garros trophy, and former ATP World No. 1, John McEnroe, was incredibly impressed by the Spaniard's achievement.
The era of the Big Three dominance has been truly incredible. Three players managed to win a total of 62 Grand Slam titles together, with two of them winning 20 each, and one now standing alone on top by two majors, with 22 to his name.
Rafael Nadal won his 22nd Grand Slam title at the 2022 Roland Garros, once again proving to the whole tennis world that there will probably never be a better clay-court player. Naturally, John McEnroe was impressed, as he talked about the Big Three dominance.
"It’s beyond belief. It took a player - [Pete] Sampras - 35 years to catch Roy Emerson. We were thinking it would be another 30 years [before the record was broken again], and now it’s one, two, three guys."
"Most of us thought it would be Novak [Djokovic], but then there was that horrible debacle in Australia. I don’t think Novak thought that Rafa would go and win [the Australian Open]."
Speaking after Nadal's incredible triumph, McEnroe said that while it might have seemed that Novak Djokovic would be the favorite to win on the Parisian clay, Nadal once again exceeded all the expectations with his remarkable performance, especially in the final.
"Djokovic came [to Roland-Garros] thinking ‘I’ve got to catch this guy’, and then Rafa stepped up to the plate again. If anyone comes close to this, I will stand on my head and do an entire telecast - if Eurosport invites me back in 15 years and Casper Ruud has just won his 14th straight French Open - I will stand on my head the entire telecast."
According to McEnroe, such an incredible dominance at a Grand Slam level will never happen again. Nadal won 14 Roland Garros titles, and no one comes even close to that sort of dominance when it comes to majors.
"This will never, ever, ever happen again in our sport, that one male - or female - will win as many of these events, so enjoy it while we can. [Rafa] has been giving signs that maybe he might not play anymore, possibly."
"I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds conceivable that it’s going to be his last match. He’s talked about not playing Wimbledon… why would he not play Wimbledon if he’s won the Australian and the French? He could win the Grand Slam, so we’ll see."
