Milos Raonic crashed to a defeat against Mackenzie McDonald in the Round of 16 of Toronto Masters, on Thursday. Raonic crashed to a 6-3 6-3 defeat, and will be aiming to improve on his form. Raonic returned to competitive tennis in June, after being out of action for two years. Following his defeat, the former world no. 3 was asked about the level of men's tennis improving in recent years.
The 32-year-old had an unique answer and blamed the Big Three (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic) for putting abnormal standards in their prime.
"I think just three guys, to have three exemplary kind of legendary athletes in one sport, not even in one generation, period, but in one sport at the same time, you kind of messed with everybody's expectation (or recalibration) of what is normal, right? If you look back at a lot of tournaments, yeah, you would have the three of them playing," he said.
"Obviously, I'm talking, like, when all the three guys were taking Masters series seriously. I think, you know, we've kind of forgotten a little bit now because it's been kind of just a pure focus on Grand Slams for them for the last couple years. When I was first on tour, it was pretty much them and Andy. Pretty much, I would say, 60%, 70% of the semifinals were them. And maybe when it came to clay, David Ferrer was kind of the guy changing things up a little bit. So, yeah, you had three guys that were there all the time and winning most of the events.
"But I think you were still seeing the same kind of thing, the rotation of guys from 16 to 5 in the world, let's say, that were kind of maybe losing early in events. You know, they weren't -- like, it's not like every week the top eight seeds were all in the quarters; right? So it's quite different," he further added.
{{/usCountry}}"But I think you were still seeing the same kind of thing, the rotation of guys from 16 to 5 in the world, let's say, that were kind of maybe losing early in events. You know, they weren't -- like, it's not like every week the top eight seeds were all in the quarters; right? So it's quite different," he further added.
{{/usCountry}}From the Big Three, only Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are playing currently. Meanwhile, Roger Federer retired in 2022. Nadal, is currently out of action, and will make a comeback next year, which is also expected to be his final ATP campaign. Meanwhile, Djokovic recently lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.