In an exclusive interview with Mike Dickson of the Daily Mail, Nick Kyrgios enumerated what he feels are the weaknesses in tennis’ holy trinity a.k.a Big Three.
Read the Full Exclusive in Daily Mail Here
'They don't do anything spectacularly well,” Kyrgios explains, before taking a quick crack at explaining how he has gone about solving the relatively unsolvable games of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in recent years.
“Obviously Federer is unbelievably talented and the greatest of all time, but he gets tired in tight situations," Kyrgios says. "Djokovic struggles with short balls, he doesn't like to come forward. Second serve can get a bit shaky. Rafa loves to be defensive so you can really push through his forehand and expose how far back he stands. So they do have weaknesses and if you play the right way and execute it right under pressure then they can be beaten."
Kyrgios may not have figured out how to play at a consistently high level week in and week out on the tour, but he has done a great job against the biggest names in the sport.
"You just have to play the right way and for the stars to align," he said. "Of course they are a level above all of us, but they are definitely beatable, I don't think like they are Gods to the sport.”
Kyrgios is one guy that deserves to have a say. He owns a 6-6 lifetime record against the trio (3-3 v Nadal, 2-0 v Djokovic and 1-3 v Federer) and recently stunned Nadal in a tremendously entertaining three-setter en route to winning the title at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.
It’s well known that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have some players beaten before they even leave the locker room, but Kyrgios isn’t about to dole out too much respect to players that he feels get preferential treatment from the tour as it is.
“I don't know how much respect the others show them but I'm not going to really respect someone just because they can hit a ball over the net, that's not enough for me to give them respect,” Kyrgios told Dickson. “Why would I give them an inch? They've already got the advantage with always playing on the best courts in the best conditions, all that sort of stuff, so I don't know why you would give them inches.”