John McEnroe has stated that Novak Djokovic must get a lot of credit for competing at the highest level despite his advancing years and the emergence of many talented youngsters.

Djokovic, Rafal Nadal, and Roger Federer have dominated the men’s circuit for more than two decades. Popularly called the Big 3, they have won a combined 66 Grand Slam titles and have been ranked as World No. 1s for a total of 928 weeks.

One of the trio has finished as the year-end No. 1 player every year from 2004 to 2023, with the exceptions of 2016 and 2022. That said, Djokovic has statistically gotten better as he grew older. He has won 12 Majors since turning 30, which is a record (men and women) for the Open Era. In comparison, Nadal has won eight Majors in his 30s while only four of Federer’s 20 Grand Slams came in his 30s.

The last few years have seen young players like Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune, and others start to make some noise on the ATP tour. While they have troubled the Serbian now and then, he continues to have the upper hand.

Former World No. 1 McEnroe has praised the World No. 1 for getting inspired by his younger competitors and said that it had the opposite effect on him in his twilight years as a professional player.

“The changing of the guard – when was that going to happen? We keep waiting for it. Novak has played Sinner, [Carlos] Alcaraz, he’s risen to the occasion. And he was inspired, he said, by these players,” he told Eurosport.

When I played those young kids like [Pete] Sampras and [Andre] Agassi, I was inspired to stop playing quickly, because those guys were too good, so I give Novak a lot of credit,” he added.