Novak Djokovic has been called the easiest to play among the Big 3 by Steve Johnson in the latest episode of his podcast ‘Nothing Major’. Johnson, alongside other former American tennis players, John Isner, Sam Querrey, and Jack Sock discussed what it felt like playing the Big 3 – Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.
Johnson is a former World No. 21 who played every member of the Big 3 and has a losing record against them, 0-3 against the Swiss, 0-1 against the Spaniard, and 0-1 against the Serb.
He opined that he felt Djokovic was the easiest of the play out of the three men because he let his opponent play whereas Federer came forward and suffocated his opponent, and Nadal bullied them on the court. The American highlighted that the Serb made his opponents miss the ball by reducing their target size.
“Roger, Rafa, Novak, this is obviously a crazy statement but, like Novak, he’s the easiest to play of the three because he lets you play tennis.”
“Roger comes forward and just suffocates you, Rafa just bullies you around the court and Novak, makes you miss and he makes your targets become so incredibly small, it’s damn near impossible.”
“I’ve never seen somebody on John Isner’s serve like that” – Jack Sock recalls how a ‘locked in’ Novak Djokovic dealt with Isner’s serve
John Isner is widely regarded as one of the best servers of all time. However, he discussed how a ‘locked-in’ Novak Djokovic was returning a ‘fired up’ American’s serves from the baseline.
“Locked in Novak, like on the baseline returning my first serve. It was a quarterfinal. I don’t know maybe I haven’t spoken about this, I was all fired up for it but like.”
Jack Sock mentioned that he was at that match and had never seen anybody putting away Isner’s serves like Djokovic.
“I was in person watching, I’ve never seen somebody on your serve like that. It was insane.”
Sam Querrey also chimed in to recount his experience of playing the Serb at the 2014 US Open. He said how the Serbian crowd started chanting ‘This is too easy’ when Querry lost to him 3-6, 2-6, 2-6.
I lost to him one time in the US Open, like the Serbian crowd started chanting like ‘This is too easy’ (claps).
The 24-time Major champion has a 10-2 record against John Isner, 1-0 against Jack Sock, and 9-2 against Sam Querrey