Novak Djokovic might only be the best tennis player of all-time, but he could be edging himself towards the title of the greatest athlete of the modern era, according to Patrick McEnroe.<\/p>\n
Speaking exclusively to Tennis365 at Indian Wells in his capacity as International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) President, McEnroe suggested the time has come to put Djokovic<\/a> in the mix for the title of the ultimate athlete in the history of all sports as he suggested his longevit at the top has taken his reputation to the next level.<\/p>\n Djokovic has already won his battle to be etched into the tennis history books as the most successful player of all-time after he claimed more Grand Slam titles than his great rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n Now McEnroe has told us that the Serbian\u2019s achievements may be even more remarkable than enduring champions like soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, NFL star Tom Brady and basketball giant LeBron James.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are seeing this kind of longevity from great athletes in a few other sports, but what Novak is doing may be the best of the lot,\u201d McEnroe told Tennis365.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have Cristiano Ronaldo at the age of 40 still playing on the biggest stages. Tom Brady continued his career for a long time, then you look at LeBron James doing what he is doing in baseball, but I would argue what Novak is doing is even more impressive.<\/p>\n \u201cWith tennis being an individual sport, it is harder to compete for as long as Novak has done and given everything he has won in the sport, his passion and drive for more is so impressive.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere to run or hide in tennis. If you are Ronaldo, you have some protection from your team mates and may only need to contribute for sections of a game.<\/p>\n \u201cTom Brady has all that protection from his teammates and LeBron is a team player, but tennis is all about doing it on your own.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I would say what Novak Djokovic is doing is one of the greatest achievements in the history of sport.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is about to be 38 and the fact that he is still competing as well as he did in a major as he did in Australia was amazing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe obviously hasn\u2019t won a major in over a year now, but he did win the Olympics last year and he is still beating players like Carlos Alcaraz, so he is still right there.<\/p>\n \u201cWho knows whether he will win another major. Wimbledon may be his best shot this year, but he obviously still loves the game and he is doing everything he possibly can to win again.\u201d<\/p>\n McEnroe went on to suggest Djokovic\u2019s drive to improve and grow as an athlete has allowed him to stay focused on tennis, as he cited an example of his attention to detail as he prepared for a Grand Slam tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember last year at the US Open in the week prior to the tournament, we were doing our shows on ESPN and he was going through his return of serve in incredible detail,\u201d said McEnroe.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had his team filming him, what position his elbow was in and where his wrist was. It was really detailed stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cI was looking at it and thinking this is the greatest tennis player of all-time, with the greatest return of all-time and he is still dissecting his game and trying to get better. I guess this is one of the reasons why he has been so successful. His attention to detail is like no other.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat players I played against like [Pete] Sampras, [Roger] Federer or my brother, they had so much natural ability and you didn\u2019t feel they were dissecting the ins and outs of it as much as someone like Djokovic.\u201d<\/p>\n The 11 men to win multiple Indian Wells titles: ft Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal<\/a><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz sets sights on Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic Indian Wells feat<\/a><\/p>\n The International Tennis Hall of Fame<\/a> (ITHF) officially opened its Letters to Greatness booth at an event hosted by ITHF Presidents, Patrick McEnroe and Kim Clijsters.<\/p>\n McEnroe and Clijsters were joined by ITHF CEO, Dan Faber and upcoming 2025 Inductees, Bob and Mike Bryan, to kick off the event by recording their own Letters to Greatness \u2013 congratulatory messages to Maria Sharapova and the Bryan Brothers ahead of their formal induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame later this summer.<\/p>\n The Letters to Greatness booth will remain open throughout the remainder of the BNP Paribas Open, where tennis fans will have the chance to record or pen their own personal messages to the Class of 2025.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic\u2019s \u2018greatest strength\u2019 revealed by Patrick McEnroe in Tennis365 interview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic gets the ultimate GOAT tribute from Patrick McEnroe<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic might only be the best tennis player of all-time, but he could be edging himself towards the title of the greatest athlete of the modern era, according to Patrick McEnroe. Speaking exclusively to Tennis365 at Indian Wells in his capacity as International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) President, McEnroe suggested the time has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n