Nick Kyrgios hasn’t played since Mallorca in June, and according to We Love Tennis he probably won’t be back before 2027. He chats with fans in Q&A sessions on his Instagram account. One of them asked him for the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the Big 3. He played along.
Federer: backhand too high, no short balls, but the most aggressive game of the three. Nadal: trouble when a cross-court backhand came back to his forehand, and a second serve that was “sometimes vulnerable”. Djokovic: “at his peak, he really had no weaknesses”, even if he “wasn’t the best at the net”. And “the greatest of all time”.
Our intern stopped at the first line.
Silly question, but how do you create a short ball? I thought you needed a special ball, a smaller one. I was told no, it’s the same ball, you just hit it less far. So Federer’s weakness is hitting too deep. For an entire career. I asked three colleagues if that was serious. One said yes, one said no, the third sent me off to find the buvette (the club snack bar). Then there’s the word ‘peak’. Djokovic had no weaknesses at his peak. I looked up the date of the peak. I checked, and actually nobody knows where it starts. And Nadal lost points because of a cross-court backhand going to his forehand, which exposed his backhand. Someone had to draw it for me. They did it in my notebook. I still have it, please, you can have a look. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
The drawing, done in biro by a colleague, has four arrows and a rectangle. Maxime has pinned it above his desk.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
