Gilles Simon blog: Believes Del Potro could've won many slams in an earlier era, praises NextGen and "LostGen", and says the Big 4 are just too good

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"We had Juan Martin del Potro, who has won one Grand Slam. I’m pretty sure in another generation and without injuries, Del Potro could have won four, five or six Slams. With them around, he earned one and only captured one ATP Masters 1000. What’s amazing is he needed to save three championship points in the 2019 Indian Wells final to do it. Do you realise how good that guy is?"



"I feel like we need young players to play great tennis. Tennis was suffering for too long, as the new generations have not been good enough to beat the Big Four. It’s not saying anything bad about guys like Milos Raonic or Kei Nishikori or anyone from their generation, because those guys are super good. It just shows how good Roger, Rafa, Novak and Andy were.

Even being 20 years older than some of the new players, they still beat them because they are just martians. It’s crazy to be that good for that long every single tournament, every single week.

At first, I was kind of happy that the new players were not able to beat them, because I’ve had that feeling my whole career. Of course we want to win a Grand Slam. Maybe it sounds like an excuse, but with these guys it was impossible."



"I think this new generation of players, many of whom are under 23 years old, they play super good. They will lead the sport in the future and I’m really happy to see that.

I think especially this most recent generation of players is really attractive. There are players with many different styles, and different personalities, too. You take guys like Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, then you have the young American guys who are a very good generation of players. Stefanos Tsitsipas can have an amazing game, Sascha Zverev too.

I feel it’s a great generation in terms of personality. Guys like Felix, Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev. They are not just good players, but they are super nice guys and very good people. That’s going to help them. They are bringing a lot of variety to the court."

www.atptour.com

Gilles Simon On Competing Against The Big Four: ‘It Was A Nightmare’ | ATP Tour | Tennis

Former World No. 6 Gilles Simon pens a blog about having to compete against the Big Four of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
www.atptour.com www.atptour.com
 
Yeah, everyone already knows Del Potro had huge potential, that was cut short by constant injury.

His injuries were a bigger factor than anything else, but that is part of the game. There are gifted players in every era who don't win as much as they might have because their bodies betray them.
 
Oceans said:
Guys like Felix, Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev. They are not just good players, but they are super nice guys and very good people.
Click to expand...
What about Nick Kyrgios? Is he a nice guy too? What metric does Simon use to assert the niceness of a guy ? Inverse bone headedness? In that case Djokovic would be the equivalent of Satan right?
 
Aussie Darcy said:
I laugh when they say the big 3 are just too good and the lost and next gen have no chance. Stan did it.... THREE times. And it’s not like he avoided playing them en route to the titles. I mean you had Medvedev make the USO final last year without playing any of the big 3 and yes he pushed Nadal to 5 but still couldn’t do it.
Click to expand...

Shhhhh.

Don't speak the truth.

Someone like Andy Murray reached more semis or better in slams in just 2010-12 period, one of the hardest ever , than the total no. of Quarters the next gen have made if we remove Thiem.


The next gen guys aren't even reaching the big 3 enough for them to be blamed.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
I laugh when they say the big 3 are just too good and the lost and next gen have no chance. Stan did it.... THREE times. And it’s not like he avoided playing them en route to the titles. I mean you had Medvedev make the USO final last year without playing any of the big 3 and yes he pushed Nadal to 5 but still couldn’t do it.
Click to expand...


Obviously the Big 3 are incredible players, but yeah....they aren't unbeatable (well except maybe Nadal on form at Roland Garros. That is a special case). Many of their opponents are beaten before they step on the court. They get intimidated by their aura. Talented players with stronger mental games might have already started taking slams off them by now.

Thiem should have done it in Australia.
 
ForehandCross said:
Shhhhh.

Don't speak the truth.

Someone like Andy Murray reached more semis or better in slams in just 2010-12 period, one of the hardest ever , than the total no. of Quarters the next gen have made if we remove Thiem.


The next gen guys aren't even reaching the big 3 enough for them to be blamed.
Click to expand...
Zverev is and will always be overrated. You have someone like Medvedev just come through and have a dominant US hard Court series and yet Zverev who’s been a masters champ for years couldn’t make a slam SF til this year? Thiem shows promise but isn’t quite there yet.
 
I think the “without injuries” part of the statement would be much more significant than the “in another era” part. I can’t see Del Potro winnning more than one Slam in different time periods (maybe 2013 Wimbledon?), but if he didn’t have injuries I think he could achieve significantly more.

Also gotta love the selective bolding of phrases to support an agenda.
 
Nole14_15NoPressure said:
What about Nick Kyrgios? Is he a nice guy too? What metric does Simon use to assert the niceness of a guy ? Inverse bone headedness? In that case Djokovic would be the equivalent of Satan right?
Click to expand...

Yep, I think Kyrgios is a really nice guy with a big heart. You can tell by how they act off the court. Don't confuse how he acts on the court with whether or not he is a nice guy. Two completely different things.
 
Last edited:
Oceans said:
"We had Juan Martin del Potro, who has won one Grand Slam. I’m pretty sure in another generation and without injuries, Del Potro could have won four, five or six Slams. With them around, he earned one and only captured one ATP Masters 1000. What’s amazing is he needed to save three championship points in the 2019 Indian Wells final to do it. Do you realise how good that guy is?"



"I feel like we need young players to play great tennis. Tennis was suffering for too long, as the new generations have not been good enough to beat the Big Four. It’s not saying anything bad about guys like Milos Raonic or Kei Nishikori or anyone from their generation, because those guys are super good. It just shows how good Roger, Rafa, Novak and Andy were.

Even being 20 years older than some of the new players, they still beat them because they are just martians. It’s crazy to be that good for that long every single tournament, every single week.

At first, I was kind of happy that the new players were not able to beat them, because I’ve had that feeling my whole career. Of course we want to win a Grand Slam. Maybe it sounds like an excuse, but with these guys it was impossible."



"I think this new generation of players, many of whom are under 23 years old, they play super good. They will lead the sport in the future and I’m really happy to see that.

I think especially this most recent generation of players is really attractive. There are players with many different styles, and different personalities, too. You take guys like Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, then you have the young American guys who are a very good generation of players. Stefanos Tsitsipas can have an amazing game, Sascha Zverev too.

I feel it’s a great generation in terms of personality. Guys like Felix, Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev. They are not just good players, but they are super nice guys and very good people. That’s going to help them. They are bringing a lot of variety to the court."

www.atptour.com

Gilles Simon On Competing Against The Big Four: ‘It Was A Nightmare’ | ATP Tour | Tennis

Former World No. 6 Gilles Simon pens a blog about having to compete against the Big Four of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
www.atptour.com www.atptour.com
Click to expand...
Simon lays it down
pmvR2bg.gif
 
Aussie Darcy said:
I laugh when they say the big 3 are just too good and the lost and next gen have no chance. Stan did it.... THREE times. And it’s not like he avoided playing them en route to the titles. I mean you had Medvedev make the USO final last year without playing any of the big 3 and yes he pushed Nadal to 5 but still couldn’t do it.
Click to expand...
What was Stan doing at 23 let alone 21?:sneaky:
 
ForehandCross said:
Shhhhh.

Don't speak the truth.

Someone like Andy Murray reached more semis or better in slams in just 2010-12 period, one of the hardest ever , than the total no. of Quarters the next gen have made if we remove Thiem.


The next gen guys aren't even reaching the big 3 enough for them to be blamed.
Click to expand...
This. The NextGen aren't consistently getting to the Big 3 and failing, like Ferrer or Berdych did - they're taking it to Fedalovic and beating them very often, but they also lose to mugs just as often. The #1 problem with this gen is inconsistency, plain and simple.
 
King No1e said:
Del Potro and Cilic also won Slams in the BIg 4 era and they were younger. And don't tell me with a straight face that Delpo and Cilic are just better than the entire NextGen.
Click to expand...
Delpo was young. I'd rate many, many of the NextGen over Cilic.:sneaky:
 
Third Serve said:
I think the “without injuries” part of the statement would be much more significant than the “in another era” part. I can’t see Del Potro winnning more than one Slam in different time periods (maybe 2013 Wimbledon?), but if he didn’t have injuries I think he could achieve significantly more.

Also gotta love the selective bolding of phrases to support an agenda.
Click to expand...


No need to travel back in time, hypothetical healthy DP bags the USO in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
 
Third Serve said:
Not 2010, no. Nadal was too good there. The others are options.
Click to expand...


Nah, he wasn't. Easy too look good when you're up against a mug field. Even decrepit DP with no BH took a set in 2017. You think the real DP was gonna struggle against the moonballer on HC? Pfff. On top of that, 2010 was a damn weak year, no way he was gonna let that chance go.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
Zverev is and will always be overrated. You have someone like Medvedev just come through and have a dominant US hard Court series and yet Zverev who’s been a masters champ for years couldn’t make a slam SF til this year? Thiem shows promise but isn’t quite there yet.
Click to expand...
Thiem really has to stop being lumped in with the actual next gen guys, when tennis comes back he’ll be 27 years old. At that age, Borg was already retired and PETE was already in decline.

Love myself some Thiem but if he’s really that good he HAS to be winning right now since no one on tour right now has a bigger age advantage than he does. He’s more mature and experienced than the next gen and he’s got youth over the big 3, he has no excuse to not be winning big tournaments year round.

I do agree with Zverev tho, he won his first Masters title shortly after he turned 20 and although still a very young man at 23, I certainly expected him to do a lot more by now.
 
-snake- said:
Nah, he wasn't. Easy too look good when you're up against a mug field. Even decrepit DP with no BH took a set in 2017. You think the real DP was gonna struggle against the moonballer on HC? Pfff. On top of that, 2010 was a damn weak year, no way he was gonna let that chance go.
Click to expand...
You are aware that you can still play phenomenally even against a weak field, correct? And that's what 2010 Nadal did. He'd have still done well even with a strong field since his level that tournament was pretty close to his level at AO 2009.
 
-snake- said:
Nah, he wasn't. Easy too look good when you're up against a mug field. Even decrepit DP with no BH took a set in 2017. You think the real DP was gonna struggle against the moonballer on HC? Pfff. On top of that, 2010 was a damn weak year, no way he was gonna let that chance go.
Click to expand...


2006 and 2015 were other years where the field sucked in a big way!
:whistle:
 
Third Serve said:
You are aware that you can still play phenomenally even against a weak field, correct? And that's what 2010 Nadal did. He'd have still done well even with a strong field since his level that tournament was pretty close to his level at AO 2009.
Click to expand...


That's not impressive and it doesn't prove his level was high. As I said, it's easy too look good when everyone else is in a funk and the pigeons left in the draw can't even put up a fight. Besides, 2010 Djok doesn't even count as tough, he was a mess the whole year. That USO was almost as pathetic as the 2019 one.
 
Weird that he considers the big 3 so good that they are ‘martians’, yet Simon himself is age 34 and still ranked 50.

If the younger generation were actually any good you would think they would have at least been able to push out an old, non-Martian, 5’11, 140lbs guy out of the game
 
-snake- said:
That's not impressive and it doesn't prove his level was high. As I said, it's easy too look good when everyone else is in a funk and the pigeons left in the draw can't even put up a fight. Besides, 2010 Djok doesn't even count as tough, he was a mess the whole year.
Click to expand...
Very well then. Fed didn't play at a high level in AO 2007. The draw was too weak.
 
Ok, let's do a breakdown:

Zverev - he was not a slam contender when stopped by the Big 3 those whooping....2 times. Lost to mugs in early rounds the rest of the times.

Tsitsipas - got annihilated by a not great Nadal once in a slam and after that Stef hasn't even reached a slam QF.

Medvedev: admittedly was stopped on his tracks by the Big 3 twice when he was a slam contender. But in the last 5 slams he has lost 3 times before the QF to non-Big 3 players. So, not that great from him.

To sum up, are the Big 3 really that good for stopping the Next Gen just....3 times in slams when they had a shot? Out of dozens of slams played? I don't think so.
 
clout said:
Thiem really has to stop being lumped in with the actual next gen guys, when tennis comes back he’ll be 27 years old. At that age, Borg was already retired and PETE was already in decline.

Love myself some Thiem but if he’s really that good he HAS to be winning right now since no one on tour right now has a bigger age advantage than he does. He’s more mature and experienced than the next gen and he’s got youth over the big 3, he has no excuse to not be winning big tournaments year round.

I do agree with Zverev tho, he won his first Masters title shortly after he turned 20 and although still a very young man at 23, I certainly expected him to do a lot more by now.
Click to expand...
As someone pointed out here, Stan didn’t start winning slams til he was 28. Yes he didn’t achieve the success like Thiem did by that age with 3 slam finals but Thiem is someone who has spent the last 4 years building his game up from ATP500 titles (i still remember the 2016 Acapulco final against Tomic where he was down a break in the third set but won) he’s then gone on to go deep at slams, Masters finals and then Masters titles and slam finals. He’s someone I can see winning a slam. Tsitsipas and Zverev just no.
 
OldschoolKIaus said:
The grandmaster of flat tennis slightly dissed Djoko so Djoko's TTW army called "The insecurity" went full nuke on the report button.
Click to expand...
Should have kept reading, because really, he was praising Djokovic quite a lot and even defended him against some of the backlash he's had (not caring enough about the lower pros, etc). The OP of that thread just had to put those specific words into the thread title lol, made it sound like Simon was having a go at him. Everything else in his interview was more interesting anyway, not the popularity contest between Fed and Nole.
 
The Green Mile said:
Should have kept reading, because really, he was praising Djokovic quite a lot and even defended him against some of the backlash he's had (not caring enough about the lower pros, etc). The OP of that thread just had to put those specific words into the thread title lol, made it sound like Simon was having a go at him. Everything else in his interview was more interesting anyway, not the popularity contest between Fed and Nole.
Click to expand...

So mistake, no?
 
The Green Mile said:
Why was that other thread deleted?

@DSH Do you still have that full interview or a link?
Click to expand...

Here it is again:

Djokovic's responsibility on the Adria Tour: "Being someone so smart, he cannot fall for doing something like that. But it is difficult to discern the possible repercussions of all this, because it is pure politics. There are some, like Roland Garros or the Us Open, they will not want to give much importance to this event. They will blame Djokovic, claiming that they will organize everything better, because they do not want this to affect their tournament. There are many people who are happy weakening Djokovic, he has put himself in a perfect place to be poked and they are not going to miss out. "

- Noah Rubin's criticism of the Serb: "The first wave of violence against Novak says it all. Since when did Noah Rubin have an entire website to destroy Djokovic? Noah criticized him for not being present at Zoom's call. Djokovic, however, he has spent 1,500 hours on the phone trying to defend the cause of the lowest ranked players without his knowing it. He accuses him of not being in the final conference, when he had already discussed all these issues with the rest long before.

Novak has done more for Noah Rubin than many other tennis players, but it seems that he has decided that he does not like him for not being in that call, which is basically the summary of all the meetings he has been to before. In the end, this is the problem with many of the players, you can give the floor to anyone when there are tennis players who have not been on the circuit for so long and who do not have an overview of it. That the prize money in the previous phase of the Us Open is doubled is something that Djokovic will not change his life, he will not see a single euro from there, but still he tries to carry it forward and they beat him. It is incredible to me to see the American tennis players watching everything Djokovic does just to say that he would not play the Us Open under the conditions of the beginning. "

- The measures of the Us Open and the possible consequences of a positive: "Right now they are telling us not to worry, that in two months we will not have this situation. The reality is that we have no idea, and that is not a pleasant thing. The first rule that was put in, which was later relaxed, was a kind of confinement for two weeks in which we would constantly make the hotel-tournament route with tests in between. But, if the test were positive, can't we go home Do we have to stay for 14 days at the hotel or ...? This is where we want answers, as players we are.

If there is a case, all the players have been tested, what would happen? Do all players get off the tournament? All these things are not planned, because the organizers have said to themselves: "We are going to organize this, to put the money, to give points and after that we get out of the way." Meanwhile, Americans say it's okay like this, that they don't want to go to Europe, while the rest say otherwise. In short, it is a very tiring process. "

- Djokovic's popularity, following his father's words: "You have to accept, after all, the figure that is Federer. He is the most beloved athlete, you cannot fight against that. Even if Djokovic won 22, 25 or 36 Grand Slams, I could say he was the strongest ... but people will prefer Roger. When Djokovic forgets that he is less liked and says to himself, "Okay, you are all going against me, you know that I'm going to take it ", as happened at Wimbledon last year, there he is unstoppable. You see it in his eyes. When he wants to be nice, he doesn't play as well and he isn't as strong: he doesn't have the same determination".

www.puntodebreak.com

Simon: "Hay gente que disfruta debilitando a Djokovic"

Como de costumbre, el francés no se mordió la lengua para alabar las decisiones de Djokovic en el Consejo y cuestionar los ataques contra él de Noah Rubin.
www.puntodebreak.com www.puntodebreak.com
 
ericarnett88 said:
Luck is more like it. Federer is a serial choker. In both of the big matches in Del Porto’s career, Federer was in winning position and let it slip away. In Federer’s defense, he was at the tail end of his prime in late 2009. I don’t think Del Po would have had the success he did against federer 5 years before. If Federer didn’t 40-15 himself, Del Po wouldn’t have a masters either.

Against Nadal and Djokovic, I don’t think much changes with a healthy Del Potro. It’s just a bad match up.
Click to expand...

Nadal isn't a bad matchup for Delpo either. Djokovic is.
 
Simon = modern day professional pusher (and apparently a complainer too). He’s Just mad he didn’t get invited to Nole’s all star exhibition.

end social media now.
 
ericarnett88 said:
Luck is more like it. Federer is a serial choker. In both of the big matches in Del Porto’s career, Federer was in winning position and let it slip away. In Federer’s defense, he was at the tail end of his prime in late 2009. I don’t think Del Po would have had the success he did against federer 5 years before. If Federer didn’t 40-15 himself, Del Po wouldn’t have a masters either.

Against Nadal and Djokovic, I don’t think much changes with a healthy Del Potro. It’s just a bad match up.
Click to expand...

you don’t win 20 slams by being a serial choker. Tennis is a game of tiny margins. Frustrating for me that in a couple of big matches things didn’t fall his way.
 
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