Roger Federer believes it will take a supreme mental and physical effort for anyone to break the top trio’s “incredible” grand slam dominance.
And few would argue with the 16-times major winner after he and world No.1 Novak Djokovic underlined their Wimbledon title credentials with first-round cakewalks at the All England Club.
Opening his bid for a record-equalling seventh crown, third seed Federer resorted to serve-and-volley training in a 6-1 6-1 6-1 destruction of Albert Ramos after Djokovic opened his championship defence with a 6-3 6-3 6-1 defeat of former No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Not even Federer can quite believe how he, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have shared 28 of the 29 grand slam trophies over the past seven years.
But nor can the Swiss superstar see the landscape changing in the near future.
“It is incredible to what degree we have been able to not only win the slams, but also in the Masters 1000s,” Federer said.
“I think you can include Andy Murray as well obviously because he’s won a ton of those.
“It seems like it’s really hard for other players to break through really on a slam level or a Masters 1000 level.
“It’s interesting. It shows how solid we’ve been over the last years, how hard it is to break through, but how hard it is to stay at the top.
“I put it down to hard work, talent and the mental and physical abilities to also win on poorer days.”
Tennis great John McEnroe claimed during the French Open this month the gap between the big three and the chasing pack was widening and further evidence came on Monday.
Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up and considered a dark horse this year, was unable to deliver on what Federer would call one of those “poorer days”.
Berdych went out in the first round, losing 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) to Latvia’s world No.87 Ernests Gulbis, who unleashed 30 aces.
Another outsider, American 11th seed John Isner, who famously won the longest match in history at Wimbledon two years ago, also came unstuck – 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 3-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 to Colombian Alejandro Falla, the world No.73.
And just as Federer and Djokovic keep cruising, Argentine David Nalbandian continues to pay for his violent outburst in the Queen’s Club final.
Runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt a decade ago, Nalbandian would have been seeded had he not had his rankings points from Queen’s removed for injuring a linesman when he kicked in an advertising sign in the final last week.
Instead, Nalbandian came up against Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic and promptly crashed out 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
Federer and Djokovic had no such troubles.
Defending champion Djokovic described as “beautiful” the honour of opening tournament proceedings on the lush green grass at London’s SW19.
“It’s a very unique feeling to walk out first on centre court,” the Serb said after setting up a date on Wednesday with American Ryan Harrison.
Federer will take on Italian Fabio Fognini in his second-round match on Wednesday and, with Berdych and Isner out, he and Djokovic are even hotter favourites to square off for the eighth time in a grand slam semi-final since 2008.
