Goffin: When Big 3 Fade, These Two Stars Will Rise

David Goffin knows what it takes to beat the Big 3—and sees a couple of successors to their place at the top of tennis.

Former world No. 7 Goffin calls Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer tennis’ greatest generation. The Belgian believes it will hurt the sport when the Big 3 fade, but sees a couple of young stars—Miami Open champion Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner—rising to continue propelling tennis.

“Of course when Federer, Nadal will stop, it’s going to hurt,” Goffin told the media in Monte-Carlo. “We are lucky to have known that generation. I was able to play against them, and I can even say I beat them at least once, all of them. It was incredible.

“But I’m not worried, because it’s going to be very exciting. We will have new winners of Grand Slams, new players will be at the top once Rafa and Djoko will be gone, and younger players will rise very quickly, like Alcaraz. Maybe Sinner will also do well.”

Goffin, the son of a tennis coach and a tennis fan himself, says this transition period is exciting for the sport as we see iconic champions Nadal and Djokovic squaring off against future stars like Alcaraz and Sinner.

“There will be plenty of new things happening,” Goffin said. “When Sampras and Agassi stopped, everybody was saying it’s going to be a catastrophe, and you saw what happened.

“We had the best generation of all time with Federer and Nadal. So I think it’s very exciting.”