«Federer remains the greatest even after Nole’s 23 Grand Slams»- Corriere.it

Adriano Panatta, king of Paris ’76, the numbers are many but not all: in your opinion, 23 Grand Slam titles make Novak Djokovic the best of all time?

«For me, nothing changes: Roger Federer is the greatest. It’s not just a matter of aesthetics. And not even of statistics, which they like so much but leave the time they find. Let me explain better: in the few years that he has played, Borg has concentrated more Grand Slam victories than Djokovic, Nadal and Federer combined ».

So the question reopens.

“Let’s do this: they’re all great. There is no greatest. Each dominates the historical period of him. Comparisons don’t make too much sense, they’re just journalistic whims: rackets, courts, balls, the way of being on the court and playing tennis change. Change everything”.

However, Djokovic holds onto the record: he crowns a pursuit of Federer and Nadal that began at the 2008 Australian Open.

“He says he’s the best? I propose that we deal with it.”

What memories does returning to Paris evoke?

«Coming to Roland Garros once a year makes me happy, something very beautiful happened in my career here, then real life is another thing. The most famous anecdote is that of the shoes that disappeared from the locker room before the final with Solomon, I desperately call Mabrouk, the employee we all loved so much: mes chaussures! We discover that Bertolucci took them by mistake, restarting after our defeat in doubles. Moral: a round of phone calls, the shoes are delivered to an Alitalia pilot departing from Fiumicino to Charles de Gaulle and they arrive at Roland Garros a minute before I take the field».

And how did the Parisian dinner with Borg and McEnroe come about? Photos and videos are all the rage on social media.

«It’s all thanks to Mansour Bahrami, the former Iranian tennis player who organizes the tournament of legends here in Paris, a genius. Appointment at Le Fouchet’s, on the Champs-Elysées. It was all very nice until McEnroe started playing the guitar… I, true to my hard and fast rule, man never dances, stayed seated.’

In the video with Bjorn and John you laugh like three kids.
«We had a lot of fun: Mac and I, as usual, put Bjorn in the middle and make fun of him affectionately. Of course, compared to us, you weren’t really capable of playing tennis. He was great. He cashed in and then he told us: but I worked so hard. You’ll understand, he won 11 Grand Slams! Very nice evening, we were all happy ».

Why are they white-haired and she is not?

“I don’t dye myself, I swear! They have white hair because they are old.”