'I faced Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in their teens – I thought one wouldn't make it'

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic are undisputed tennis royalty, but having faced each 3 connected their mode up, Tim Henman was amazed by the trajectory of 1 successful particular

Few players had a amended front-row spot to the emergence of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic than Tim Henman.

The erstwhile British No. 1 witnessed firsthand however the trio evolved into bona fide tennis legends, rewriting past on the way. But erstwhile helium faced each of them arsenic a teenager, 1 didn't instantly basal retired arsenic a aboriginal world-beater.

All 3 had undeniable endowment and sky-high potential, yet it was Nadal who amazed Henman the most. Speaking to Mirror Sport, the 50-year-old said helium was blown distant by the Spaniard's powerfulness but reckoned helium would beryllium excessively inconsistent to marque it astatine the precise acme of the sport.

"I practised with Nadal, and I'd ne'er seen anyone deed the shot that hard," Henman remembered. "But each 3rd changeable was successful the backmost fence, and I conscionable didn't honestly judge that you could play similar that due to the fact that you'd marque mistakes."

"He didn't deed the shot rather arsenic hard successful matches, but aft I'd mislaid the signifier acceptable 6-1, I thought possibly it volition work," helium laughed.

The emergence of 'the Big Three' coincided with the twilight of Henman's career. He faced Nadal doubly and Djokovic once, losing each 3 encounters. His grounds against Federer is much respectable, boasting six wins successful 13 matches - though, notably, lone 1 came aft the Swiss claimed his archetypal Grand Slam title.

Looking back, Henman recalls seeing major-winning imaginable successful each 3 erstwhile helium archetypal faced them. But adjacent with their evident talent, helium ne'er pictured them clinching aggregate large titles - fto unsocial breaking the 20-mark.

"I deliberation if I was to upwind the timepiece backmost to erstwhile I was archetypal alert of each of them, I would person said yea they're precise very bully players. Can they triumph a slam? Yeah I deliberation they tin triumph a slam. But beyond that, perfectly not," Henman insisted.

"To triumph 66 betwixt them is conscionable hard to comprehend. I deliberation erstwhile [Pete] Sampras was playing successful my epoch and helium got to 14, I would person stake my bottommost dollar that nary 1 was going to spell past that. To spot 3 of them bash it is incredible."

Federer was the archetypal of 'the Big Three' to clinch a large aft winning Wimbledon successful 2003. Nadal followed suit successful 2005 by winning the French Open - a title he'd spell connected to triumph 13 much times, portion Djokovic got disconnected the people astatine the Australian Open successful 2008.

By the extremity of the decade, they'd won 21 Grand Slams betwixt them, with Federer notching his 10th large triumph arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2007. Nadal managed his 10th triumph successful 2010, portion Djokovic joined them connected treble figures successful 2016.

Two years later, Federer secured his 20th Grand Slam title, with Nadal and Djokovic pursuing suit successful 2020 and 2021 respectively. Each of them has, astatine immoderate point, held the favoritism of being the astir palmy antheral subordinate successful history, though the honour present belongs to Djokovic, who sits atop the database with 24 majors - 2 much than Nadal and 4 much than Federer.

Henman, meanwhile, ne'er won a large title, but reached six Grand Slam semi-finals, including 4 astatine Wimbledon. He did, however, triumph 11 ATP singles titles and spent implicit six years arsenic British No. 1.