'I would love to have played during this era in my prime': Nick Kyrgios feels today’s field is easier to break through

Nick Kyrgios stated that Grand Slam draws are much more open than a decade ago, and not only highlighted the great level of the Big Three, but also many other colleagues who had good chances of winning a major title but were prevented by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.

The Australian believes that tennis has changed in terms of the possibilities for players to fight for the big titles, ensuring that when he was in his prime, it was practically impossible to dream of going beyond the fourth round. Kyrgios is preparing for his return after more than two months at Roland Garros, where he will play the doubles draw alongside his compatriot Jordan Thompson.

The 2022 Wimbledon runner-up appeared on The Changeover podcast, commenting on the current state of tennis, and stopped to compare the eras of when he was at his best with the current state of tennis, where he considered that it is much more likely for players to think about achieving the big titles, despite the clear favoritism of Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz.

"I think when I was in my prime, when I played Grand Slams, I would make the third or fourth round, and I knew that was probably as far as I was going to go," he said. "You had the big three, prime [Andy] Murray, prime [Stan] Wawrinka, prime [Juan Martin] Del Potro, prime [Marin] Cilic, all the big servers, prime [John] Isner, [Tomas] Berdych, [Gael] Monfils.

"I was looking at the draw and then me, and I was like, I am probably not going to advance," he added. "I think now the Slams are more open because what are the chances that someone like me or [Jo-Wilfried] Tsonga was going to beat Rafa [Nadal] and then the next day he had to play Novak [Djokovic] and then the next [Roger] Federer."

"The chances of beating those guys multiple times in a Slam was basically zero, whereas I think now if [Jannik] Sinner or [Carlos] Alcaraz or one of those guys has one bad day, that section is wide open for everyone."

On the other hand, he said that he would have liked to have played in his prime in the current era, as his chances of achieving more would have increased. "I would love to have played during this era in my prime, for sure," he said. "I think I would have made the fourth round or quarters pretty easily, to be honest."

"But I enjoyed playing in that era. When you saw Federer, Novak, or Nadal in your quarter, it was like how do you want to go home basically. That’s how good they were. They were three of the greatest of all time; they were competing against each other and did not even look at anyone else."