Thiem called time on his career earlier this month and earned enough of plaudits from his competitors, with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic among those leading the honors to the 2020 US Open champion.
Prior to the advent of the most successful players in the history of the men’s game, the thought of winning 20 or more Grand Slam singles titles appeared ludicrous.
Yet Federer smashed that glass ceiling by being the first to achieve the milestone of 20, with Nadal and Djokovic racing past him in the final analysis of their riveting rivalry.
The dominance of those three players over two decades was solidified by the failure of at least one generation of star names to find a way to beat them, with the likes of Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov knocking on the door of Grand Slam titles and failing to get over the line.
Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Juan Martin del Potro did manage to worry the ‘important 3’, as did Thiem, who has a winning record in his head-to-head confrontations with Federer and also picked up important wins against Nadal and Djokovic.
Thiem called time on his career at the age of 31 earlier this month after losing his battle with persistent ailments and in a gripping interview on the newest A New Way of Being podcast, the Austrian pondered on why the standards set by the ‘Big 3’ was too much for the chasing pack to bear.
Many have said the growth in the usage of mobile phones and the internet has had a negative impact on the psyche of the youth and Thiem believes it could also have been a distraction for young tennis players who lacked the drive to reach for the stars.
“I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that there are so many unbelievable athletes born in the generation between like 1981 and 1987,” remarked Thiem.
“In those six years, you had Roger (Federer), (Lionel) Messi, (Cristiano) Ronaldo, (Lewis) Hamilton, Novak (Djokovic), Andy (Murray), Rafa (Nadal), LeBron James. Then a little bit older, there is Tom Brady and Michael Jordan.
“So it just cannot be a coincidence, and maybe we were like the generation, the first one with the smartphone, which is definitely harming concentration, harming focus.