What John McEnroe said tennis failed to do when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were in their prime

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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic dominated tennis for almost two decades, winning 66 Grand Slam titles between them.

The trio, best known as the ‘big three’, held the number one ranking for a combined 947 weeks and are widely considered to be the greatest players to have ever picked up a tennis racket.

Taking tennis to new heights, Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic all left their marks on the sport.

Following Federer’s retirement in 2022, Nadal retired from tennis at the end of the 2024 season, leaving Djokovic as the last man standing on the ATP Tour.

There is still time for Djokovic to write a few more chapters in his tennis story before the last of the trio calls it quits, although one tennis legend previously claimed the sport failed to capitalise on the ‘big three’ era.

John McEnroe once said tennis didn’t take advantage of the ‘big three’ era by growing the sport

Appearing on ’60 Minutes Australia’ in 2018, former world number one John McEnroe gave his verdict on Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic.

“I think we have gone through an era where the greatest players that ever lived have played. I mean, with all due respect to my idol Rod Laver, Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic – this is a whole new league,” he said.

“It doesn’t seem like we have taken advantage of that, in terms of popularity of the sport.”

When asked how to increase the popularity of tennis, McEnroe provided an interesting response.

“One of my biggest goals when I came into the sport was that I could quickly see that there was not enough people who could afford to play it, and I wanted to change that,” he said.

“One of the reasons why I was surprised when people would get so angry when I yelled at an official or got in an argument was that they were doing that all the time in all the other sports, but we were looked at in a different way.

“‘Oh, it’s a country club sport, you can’t do that’. And I wanted tennis to be looked at in the same way as the other top sports.”

McEnroe was often embroiled in controversy during his tennis career, and his ‘You cannot be serious’ outburst is still quoted to this day.

Never afraid to make headlines as a player, the American continues to do so as a pundit, and recently claimed Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz would be favored to beat Nadal on clay, a suggestion that wasn’t well received by tennis fans.

McEnroe argued tennis had failed to capitalise on the success of the ‘big three’ by growing the sport, but how popular is tennis compared to other global sports?

The top ten most popular sports in the world

It’s tough to judge which sports are the most popular, but a report from Instasport earlier this year gave it a good go, ranking the ten most popular sports in the world by influence, audience size, and cultural impact.

According to their report, tennis is the fifth most popular sport in the world, with over one billion fans in 2025.

Perhaps tennis should be higher on this list, and pushing the likes of hockey, basketball, and cricket for the top spots.

The reality is nothing will touch football (soccer) on a global scale, but there’s no reason why tennis can’t start closing the gap.

If McEnroe believes tennis failed to capitalize on the ‘big three’ era in growing the sport, then he’ll surely hope the same mistake isn’t made with Alcaraz and Sinner.

The two youngsters have dominated tennis over the past two years and have shared the previous eight Grand Slams amongst themselves.

• 2024 Australian Open – Jannik Sinner
• 2024 French Open – Carlos Alcaraz
• 2024 Wimbledon – Carlos Alcaraz
• 2024 US Open – Jannik Sinner
• 2025 Australian Open – Jannik Sinner
• 2025 French Open – Carlos Alcaraz
• 2025 Wimbledon – Jannik Sinner
• 2025 US Open – Carlos Alcaraz

Only time will tell if Alcaraz and Sinner can continue to dominate, and if their dominance will help drive tennis forward.