The fight for the GOAT is increasingly close, especially now that two of them, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (and Roger Federer), have 22 Grand Slam titles. In case someone tries to get away, there are other tennis players who cannot choose one of the three, because they are all unique: one of them is Dominic Thiem, who has managed to defeat all three in the past.
“I have a very good relationship with all of them, I get along very well with all three and I admire them equally. They always talk about who is better than the other and the truth is that it is not good. I think it is a lack of respect for each one of them, they have all achieved incredible things, which probably no one else will achieve in their lifetime.
There is no single GOAT, everyone deserves it because they are unique”, he declared in an interview with olé.com. The Austrian tennis player has received a wild card for the Argentina Open, where he will face Molcan, the seventh seed of the tournament, in the first round.
For the Grand Slam champion this is the fourth participation in this event, of which he has also been champion twice: this is one of the reasons why he returns to the Argentine capital. “It’s always easy for me to decide to come here, to this tournament, which I’ve also won twice and the third time I stayed in the semifinals.
I’ve obtained very good results and I really like the city.” Thiem’s objective is to return to a high level after the wrist injury that sank him in the classification. Despite the two difficult years, the worst time for him is another: “The worst years were when you are young, when you have to work hard in the junior phase, when you don’t know what is going to happen in the future.”
Nakajima reflects on Federer
Roger Federer felt very comfortable in the Nike house when he was young, happy to pop over, make himself a sandwich with ham and cheese and watch Wimbledon on TV.
Nike set out to popularize Federer in the US. “I’m a little biased,” said Nakajima. “But no one does marketing better than Nike. When you get the big Nike marketing machine behind you, that can blow that athlete through the stratosphere.
Roger would have been famous on his own for sure. Even if he was playing for any other brand. But he became a lot bigger because of Nike’s marketing machine. The exposure that Nike can provide to an athlete is amazing. Obviously, you have to have success on the court, which Roger had. He won a few US Opens; that opened many people’s eyes”.
