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Rafael Nadal’s uncle Toni has blasted the current crop of men’s tennis stars by insisting that the best players of years gone by were ‘more competitive’ than those of today. Novak Djokovic is currently head and shoulders above the rest of his peers with the exception of Carlos Alcaraz, who looks set to dominate when the Serb eventually decides to retire.

The likes of Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud have struggled to be competitive against Djokovic and Alcaraz, with only Medvedev having won a Grand Slam title. Toni believes that the standards have dropped in recent years and that all three players would be beaten by the likes of Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro in their respective primes.

Writing for Spanish daily newspaper El Pais, he said: “Years ago, top players were better than now. They were more competitive. Nadal would definitely beat Medvedev, Murray beat Zverev, [Stan] Wawrinka beat Ruud, Del Potro beat [Andrey] Rublev and [David] Ferrer beat [Holger] Rune.”

Toni went on to aim a stray dig at Djokovic by insisting that he is no longer the dominant force he once was, adding: “And Djokovic is a worse player than five to ten years ago.”

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The younger generation of tennis players are still miles behind the likes of Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Federer, with Alcaraz having emerged as the only standout talent in recent years. Their inability to compete has allowed Djokovic to clean up in the majority of Grand Slam events, with Nadal having suffered from various injury problems and Federer no longer active in the sport.

Toni’s damning verdict comes after his nephew warned that it will be difficult for any of the up-and-coming players to match the standards set by himself, Djokovic and Federer over the last few decades.

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“‘I can’t predict the future,” said Nadal earlier this year. “Some of the names that you named, they are super good. Carlos has one Grand Slam, the others have zero yet. If we start talking about achieving 22 Grand Slams, 21, 20, I mean, it’s a big deal.

“That can happen, yes. Why not? But at the same time never happened in the past. [It] will not be easy that happens two generations in a row. That’s just putting the logical perspective on the room, no? They are super good, they’re going to have amazing careers.

“They’re going to win Slams, they’re going to win a lot of tournaments, yes. Some of them, I can’t be sure, but I’m almost sure not two players of this generation [are] going to achieve 20, 21, and 22 Grand Slams. If someone can reach that number, maybe it’s going to be difficult, they have a lot of things to do in front. But you never know what can happen.”

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