Tennis legend John McEnroe shared his thought on the legacy of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, as arguably two best tennis players enter the end game of their respective Hall of Fame careers.
In a radio interview with WFAN host Marc Malusis on Tuesday in New York City via Tennis Today, McEnroe provided his updated version of tennis All-Time rankings.
For McEnroe, Federer is still the greatest tennis player of all time largely because of the body of work he had accomplished in his career. McEnroe pointed out the Swiss Master's longevity and consistency over the span of his pro career makes him the ultimate tennis player.
As far Nadal is concerned, McEnroe believes nobody in the history of tennis who matches up well with Federer. He thinks Nadal is the waterloo to Federer's greatness, although injuries and inconsistencies the last 2-3 years certainly hurt his claim as the G.O.AT.
"Federer overall, consistency-wise, is the best player ever," McEnroe told WFAN host Marc Malusis in a radio interview on Tuesday in New York City. "If you put Nadal, who is to me, the other guy. Those two if they played one-on-one and both guys were playing their best, I would say Nadal matches up better with Federer.
Knowing that Federer and Nadal may have at least 2 years left in their careers, McEnroe considers Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic as the top-2 players in the world right now. He added that Djokovic's accomplishment the last 4 years pushed him to top-5 all time. However, like Murray, the American predicts Djokovic to have 2 good years left in him before he hits the wall.
"There's a void that's about to occur because of what's happened with (Roger) Federer and (Rafael) Nadal," McEnroe told Malusis. "I mean, they're at the end, right? You can't imagine them going on more than a year or two. (Novak) Djokovic (and Andy) Murray are the two best, but they're not getting younger. I know 29 sounds young, but they're going to have another couple years, you anticipate."
