Federer, Nadal & Djokovic's domination made it "practically impossible" for other players to win a Grand Slam during their era, says Fernando Verdasco

Fernando Verdasco recently opened up on the near impossibility of winning a Grand Slam when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic were playing together.

The trio are widely regarded as three of the greatest players in the sport's history, with Federer (20) trailing Nadal and Djokovic (22 apiece) in the all-time leaderboard. They have dominated the Grand Slam landscape as few else have.

Between Roland Garros 2005 and Wimbledon 2009, the trio won 18 consecutive Slams, with Federer winning 11, Nadal six, and Djokovic one. The trio accounted for the next 11 Major titles after the 2009 US Open before Andy Murray made his Grand Slam breakthrough at the 2012 US Open.

Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic then won 14 straight Slams between the 2017 Australian Open and the 2020 Roland Garros.

In an interaction with UBI Tennis, Verdasco talked about the difficulty of winning a Grand Slam in the Big 3 era:

"It was practically impossible for other players to think of lifting a major title, only Cilic, Del Potro or Wawrinka managed to win a Slam in that period. In almost 20 years and 80 Slams played, it happened on three or four occasions. Now there's certainly more room for everyone."

While Federer retired last year, Nadal is currently nursing an injury, while Djokovic won the Australian Open last month.

A former top 10 player, Verdasco said that he would prefer to have his career-best ranking of No. 7 now than in 2009 when the Big 3 were dominating:

"If you ask me as a player if I would have preferred to occupy seventh position today or in 2009, my answer is today. Roger has just retired, Murray is no longer at the same level he was ten years ago and Rafa unfortunately always has to live with many injuries."

Verdasco won only one of his 10 matches with the Big 3 in the Grand Slams - against Nadal in the 2016 Australian Open first round.

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"Hopefully we can have him here" - Indian Wells tournament director on Novak Djokovic's participation

2023 Australian Open: Men's Champion Photocall

USA has announced the lifting of the vaccine requirement for foreign arrivals from May 11. That rules out Novak Djokovic, who is unvaccinated against COVID-19, from playing the Indian Wells and Miami Masters next month.

Indian Wells tournament director Tommy Haas hopes to have the restriction lifted earlier to allow the reigning Australian Open champion to play in both events. He said:

“It would be nice to see if we could maybe lift those a little earlier and have him come to play Indian Wells and Miami. I think he wants to play, so we should give him the chance. Hopefully we can have him there. I mean, it would be a disgrace, in my eyes, if he wasn’t coming to these events or not allowed to come.”

The Serb missed the US Open, Indian Wells, Miami, and Cincinnati last year because of his COVID-19 vaccination stance.