Casper Ruud is still in disbelief over the fact that Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic never lost the motivation and managed to dominate the game for such a long time.

In every year between 2003 and 2023, a Big Three group member won at least one Grand Slam. Currently, they share 66 Majors between them, with the Serb owning an all-time record of 24 while the Spaniard has 22 and the Swiss 20, respectively.

In 2022, Federer retired from pro tennis after failing to recover from knee surgery. That same year, Nadal won back-to-back titles at the Australian Open and French Open but he started to deal with major injury issues in the second part of 2022 and now he is set to walk away from the game next month after barely playing any tournaments in the last two years.

On the other side, Djokovic made all four Grand Slam finals last year and added three titles to his collection. While the 37-year-old made the Wimbledon final and reached the Australian Open semifinal, he didn’t win a Major in a single season for the first time since 2017 and it is not a secret that it wasn’t a good season for him Slam-wise.

But even if the Serb – who will soon remain the only active Big Three member – doesn’t win any more Major, it won’t change the fact that the group was dominating the Slam scene for the entire two decades.

Casper Ruud and Novak Djokovic© Casper Ruud/Instagram – Fair Use

“I’ve understood how crazy it is from Rafa, Roger, and Novak… That they performed every single year for like 17, 18 years. They’ve been so good. How have they been able to keep the motivation up? How they’ve been able to be strict with themselves… How have they been able to win like 70 matches every year? Year in, year out. I just don’t understand how it’s possible. It’s one thing to do it 3, 4, or 5 years. But for them it’s been almost 20 years of pure domination,” Ruud said on the Nothing Major podcast.

Ruud felt on his own skin how it feels to play those guys on the biggest stage

In the spring of 2022, the 25-year-old Norwegian made his maiden Slam final at the French Open. Going up against his idol, he stood no chance after the Spaniard ousted him 6-3 6-3 6-0.  After losing in the 2022 US Open final to Carlos Alcaraz, Ruud made the final at Roland Garros again in 2023 – but this time lost to Djokovic in three sets.

“The two finals I played, against Rafa in 2022 and against Novak in 2023, I thought: ‘Could it be harder – can you find more motivated players in the history of the game?’ You understand that they’re probably going to stay on court until the death. They don’t want to lose, especially when Novak is trying to win his 23rd Grand Slam. You know he’s just going to lock it down and you can be 5-1, 40-0 in the first set and he’s probably going to win it one way or another,” Ruud said on the Nothing Major podcast.

“Against Nadal, with his foot injury, I was pretty optimistic. I came in with confidence, I wasn’t too nervous, certainly a little bit, but I didn’t feel like I had any pressure. But the match started and I got broken in the first game, that’s it.”

Casper Ruud and Rafael Nadal© Casper Ruud/Instagram – Fair Use

Ruud insisted that he ‘was not haunted’ by the Nadal loss in the past

For the world No. 8, to win a total of six games during his maiden Major final definitely wasn’t something he was hoping for. And when the Norwegian returned to Paris in 2023, he was asked if that loss was weighing heavy on his mind.

“I’m not really haunted by what happened last year in the final honestly. I mean, like I said, I think last year I’m not the first victim to lose to Rafa in the final. Of course I wish I could have done a little better and so on, but was my first one. Not really haunted by it,,” Ruud said during the 2023 French Open.

After this statement, the Norwegian went on to make another French Open final. While he competed much better this time, he still lost after Djokovic got the job done in three tight sets 7-6 (1) 6-3 7-5.

This season, Ruud didn’t enjoy much success on the Grand Slam stage as reached semifinal at the French Open but didn’t make it past the round-of-16 in any other Major.