Tennis: the French vote Nadal and Federer, not Djokovic absent

A historic three-way rivalry finally summed up by a duel, according to the French.

Over the past 15 years, the tennis world has seen three of the greatest players in the history of the sport fall apart on the courts: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Between them, these legends weigh 60 of the last 75 Grand Slam titles with 20 trophies each.

Immense.

At the twilight of their respective careers, even if the current Serbian world number one - recent winner of the Masters 1000 de Bercy - still has good years ahead of him, the three stars were the subject of an Odoxa poll, published on Sunday, and carried out with 1004 French people (including 375 tennis fans).

Verdict: according to this sample of adults representative of the French population, Rafael Nadal (42%) collects the largest number of votes, ahead of Roger Federer (33%) and Novak Djokovic (20%), in the ranking of the preferred player of the French public.

The Serbian being, despite 7 seasons concluded at the top of the ATP ranking (a record), the big loser of these votes.

Novak Djokovic titled @RolexPMasters is ...

🏆 86th career title

🏆 6th title at Bercy

🏆 37th Masters 1000

🏆 62nd grand title (GC + ATP Finals + M1000) pic.twitter.com/uQmr2VXWxb

- We Are Tennis France (@WeAreTennisFR) November 8, 2021

A hierarchy that is reversed for the Swiss (43%) and the Spaniard (33%) when we look only at the vote of tennis fans, who however once again place the current leader of the ATP ranking in third position (23%).

Federer the best, Gaston the new tricolor

The authors of the survey partly explain these subjective results by Nadal's success at Roland Garros (13 titles), a tournament dear to the French who classify the Spaniard as the most combative.

As for the best career, voters, and especially tennis fans, generally agree that Roger Federer, the most technical according to them, remains the best player of the past 15 years.

On the side of the next generation, a duo made up of world number 2 Daniil Medvedev (29%) and number 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas (28%) stand out in the supposed succession of the three legends.

Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, number 3 in the ATP, won 15% of the vote.

The French like Gaston

If French tennis has struggled to raise the crowds in recent seasons, with the gradual decline of the Tsonga-Monfils-Gasquet-Simon generation, the question of French successors has nevertheless arisen.

And in this game, it is the new darling of the public, Hugo Gaston (21), who obtains the best appreciation.

More than three quarters of the French believe that the hero of Roland-Garros 2020 (round of 16) and Bercy 2021 (quarters) will be the future French number 1.

It now remains to confirm the emerging hope by the results and consistency on the ATP circuit.