basically the point is that the promising youngsters did not get the same kind of help which fed and his pigeons got in the early-mid 2000s.....do you think safin, hewitt etc. were better returners than agassi? of course not......they just benefited from slowed down surfaces and started scoring victories over aging legends like pete......i am asking the same again......why din't the administrators of the sport just give the youngsters the help they need desperately in and around 2014 or 2015? all they needed was some fast courts at grandslams to be able to compete against big-3 and there would have been a significant difference in the outcome of slam counts today......only injury free nadal on clay will be relevant in such circumstances......starting from alexander dolgopolov, raonic, janowicz, dimitrov to the current gen medvedev, tsitsipas, zverev, shapovalov, felix etc. would all have enjoyed facing big-3 on faster surfaces......chances of upsets would manifold.....us open plays slightly faster than aus open and you can see fed's and djokovic's results there over the last 15 years......how much have they won there? only nadal has been successful there due to healthy bounce on the surface despite being a fast surface......i think only nadal's greatness on clay would transcend generations, i am not quite convinced that the other two would have had anywhere near their current results in any other era......so just speed up the surfaces, you will see the results immediately......homogenization has been taken way too far than needed......
1. Hewitt is up there with Agassi at prime returning wise. better defensive returner than agassi. Agassi was better offensively. surfaces were hardly slow in 99-01. Hewitt was already returning Sampras' serve well in 99 and obviously 00.
Besides Hewitt preferred surfaces to be atleast decent speed for his counter-punching.
2. safin of course is a worse returner than agassi overall, but that day in the USO 00 final, he was in the absolute zone and returned Sampras' serve better than agassi did in a slam match. AO of course is a slower surface and Safin was able to return Sampras' serve well in AO 02. he's a little better on slower HC than on faster HC (3 Paris titles, 1 Madrid title+YEC semi in 04 losing to fed. doesn't make that big a difference to him though.
3. med got a fast enough surface in AO 22. choked badly vs the worst slam winning level (for whole slam) since Johansson AO 02.
Zverev and Raonic got their chances vs a not so good Djokovic on the quick AO surface in 2021. they failed miserably.
Raonic choked vs a below par Djokovic even in Cincy 20 in Bo3, let alone Bo5.
Yes, admins... shouldn't have slowed down surfaces. But that affected likes of tsonga, delpo, berdych most. not the next 2 useless gens.
these gens (lost and so called next gen) are useless compared to fed's generation, regardless of how much one (hint, hint) may delude himself
4. AO was faster than USO in 17,18,21 atleast. fed struggled there after USO 15 because it is late in the season (hampered by injury in 16/17/19). Djoko won in 18, lost coz of Stan in 19, default in 20 and CYGS pressure/late in season 21.
When USO was clearly faster than AO, fed won 5 in a row and made a 6th final (2004-09). also USO 11 semi playing much better than nadal in the final. and 15 final without losing a set.
5. in other generations, nadal would be struggling on grass/USO far more than he has. consistent bounce at Wimbledon on joke draws at USO have helped him considerably.
so in summary big chunk of your post is a load of
utter tripe and falsehoods.