Gukesh D picks his tennis 'GOAT'; names MS Dhoni as athlete he looked up to

Gukesh also named chess legend Viswanathan Anand as the athlete with highest IQ.

Youngest chess world champion Gukesh D has been one of the best performing Indian chess players since last year. Recently, he named the athlete he thinks is the greatest of all-time and also picked Magnus Carlsen as the most athletic player he knows.

In an exclusive interview with Freestyle Chess, alongside Andrea Botez, who’s Canadian chess player and content creator, Gukesh answered some interesting and tricky questions. Initially, the Indian was asked about the most athletic player he knows, to which Gukesh responded with fellow Chess companion, Magnus Carlsen.

While chess isn’t a sport which involves physical movement like other disciplines, it demands immense concentration and mental strength.

When asked about the smartest player with the highest IQ, Gukesh named Indian legend Viswanathan Anand, a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion.

However, the most interesting response of all, was to the final question, when asked about the best sports player of all time. Gukesh called 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic as the GOAT, and this isn’t the first time he has recognised the Serbian tennis as an all-time great.

In an older interview, Gukesh spoke about how he drew inspiration from Djokovic’s resilience and remarkable ability to handle pressure. Statistically leaps and bounds ahead of every other tennis player, Djokovic completed tennis when he clinched the Olympic Gold medal at the Paris Games, beating Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets.

Also Read: Magnus Carlsen names his tennis GOAT – ‘Probably Federer, but I always identified…’

As the highest Australian Open title holder and second highest at Wimbledon, Djokovic is one of the few players who asserted his dominance at every surface across different conditions. The Serbian is the only player to have beaten Rafael Nadal twice at Roland Garros, where the Spaniard has lost only four games in his French Open history.

Besides Djokovic, Gukesh another popular athlete who Gukesh looked upto, in his early days, was former World Cup winning captain, MS Dhoni.

“When I was younger, it was Indian cricketer MS Dhoni; now it’s Novak Djokovic. I think both are great athletes, and I admire a lot of things about them,” Gukesh told PTI. “The way they handle pressure, their composure in big moments — they’re big-game players who always deliver when it matters most. That’s what draws me to them.”

Also Read: A tribute to Paddy Upton – the South African who brought his Midas touch to Indian sport

True to his words, Gukesh channelled Dhoni-like calmness during the intense finale of the Candidates Tournament, which was tied 6.5–6.5 after 13 rounds. In a strategic move ahead of the tournament, Gukesh brought on board renowned mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton in October.

Upton’s inclusion wasn’t just coincidence, he played a key role in India’s 2011 ODI World Cup triumph under Dhoni, serving as the team’s mental conditioning coach, and more recently, was part of India’s support staff for the 2024 Paris Olympics hockey team.

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