A bleary eyed Rafael Nadal, one of the "Big Four" of Men's Tennis said after winning the French Open this year - "Our generation is on the way out. We have all been here for a long while. It's normal. A generation is walking away and others will replace us. It will not come overnight, but it will come".
Cynics like me scoffed at this comment from Nadal. Ha! I thought, this was surely another deliberate ploy of self flagellation - something Nadal is infamous for. It turns out though, that he was right. What's worse, is that he was the first person to bear the brunt of the "new generation".
Nadal's quest for a third Wimbledon Trophy came to a crushing end when he slumped to a defeat against the nineteen year old Australian, Nick Kyrigos in the fourth round. He lost 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-3 to the big serving teenager in a closely contested match. In fact, the match was so close, that at the end of the match, Kyrigos had only three points more than Nadal. These are the interesting quirks of tennis that do not reflect themselves on the score line. But what was more fascinating than the closeness of the match was that Kyrigos played like a man possessed. He served like maniac and bounced out Nadal by hitting a whooping 37 aces.
Cynics like me scoffed at this comment from Nadal. Ha! I thought, this was surely another deliberate ploy of self flagellation - something Nadal is infamous for. It turns out though, that he was right. What's worse, is that he was the first person to bear the brunt of the "new generation".
Nadal's quest for a third Wimbledon Trophy came to a crushing end when he slumped to a defeat against the nineteen year old Australian, Nick Kyrigos in the fourth round. He lost 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-3 to the big serving teenager in a closely contested match. In fact, the match was so close, that at the end of the match, Kyrigos had only three points more than Nadal. These are the interesting quirks of tennis that do not reflect themselves on the score line. But what was more fascinating than the closeness of the match was that Kyrigos played like a man possessed. He served like maniac and bounced out Nadal by hitting a whooping 37 aces.
This is not the first time that Nadal has bowed out to big hitting youngster at Wimbledon. In fact, Nadal has lost in the early rounds of Wimbledon for the last three years now. I will enumerate the reasons for such early losses in another article. But, the writing on the wall is clear. The best chance, anyone – literally any tennis player, regardless of their rank – has to beat Nadal, is when he plays on grass.
The seismic aftershocks of Nadal’s defeat had yet to settle down, when another massive upset shook the tennis world. This time the casualty was the defending champion of Wimbledon, Andy Murray. And again, the conqueror of this Giant was another upcoming star, Grigor Dimitrov.
To be fair to Murray, nobody really expected him to do well this year. After all he had just come back from a major back surgery. What’s more, he also had the additional burden of acclimatizing to a new coach.
Although expectations weren’t high from him, the fact remained that he had a 17 match winning streak – including one Wimbledon Championships and an Olympic Gold Medal – on the grass courts of Wimbledon. One would’ve expected him to give a fight to the relatively inexperienced Dimitrov. Alas, that wasn’t to happen. Murray went down easily 6-1 7-6 6-2. His repeated use of unsportsmanlike expletives made his defeat a lot more ungraceful and forgettable.
His exit left the tennis world gasping for breath. Two of the biggest tennis stars had lost to the “young brigade” on two consecutive days.
What exasperated the situation further was that on the same day, there was a moment when both Djokovic and Federer were trailing their respective opponents in their Quarter Final Matches. Federer was a set down against fellow Swiss Stan Wawarinka, while Djokovic was stretched into a five setter against the gigantic Croatian Marin Cilic. Was this the “End of the Big Four”? Would Wimbledon see a semifinal without a familiar face of the top four? The Tennis World had turned unpredictable for the first time in decades.
Eventually though, calmness was restored, and both Djokovic and Federer won their matches. But not before learning that they were no longer at the head of the pack. The comfortable days when they would literally win all the Grand Slams in a year between them had gone. They could no longer play pass the parcel with the Grand Slam Trophies. They were being chased relentlessly by a group of young, unforgiving, boisterous tennis players with savage playing styles.
The seismic aftershocks of Nadal’s defeat had yet to settle down, when another massive upset shook the tennis world. This time the casualty was the defending champion of Wimbledon, Andy Murray. And again, the conqueror of this Giant was another upcoming star, Grigor Dimitrov.
To be fair to Murray, nobody really expected him to do well this year. After all he had just come back from a major back surgery. What’s more, he also had the additional burden of acclimatizing to a new coach.
Although expectations weren’t high from him, the fact remained that he had a 17 match winning streak – including one Wimbledon Championships and an Olympic Gold Medal – on the grass courts of Wimbledon. One would’ve expected him to give a fight to the relatively inexperienced Dimitrov. Alas, that wasn’t to happen. Murray went down easily 6-1 7-6 6-2. His repeated use of unsportsmanlike expletives made his defeat a lot more ungraceful and forgettable.
His exit left the tennis world gasping for breath. Two of the biggest tennis stars had lost to the “young brigade” on two consecutive days.
What exasperated the situation further was that on the same day, there was a moment when both Djokovic and Federer were trailing their respective opponents in their Quarter Final Matches. Federer was a set down against fellow Swiss Stan Wawarinka, while Djokovic was stretched into a five setter against the gigantic Croatian Marin Cilic. Was this the “End of the Big Four”? Would Wimbledon see a semifinal without a familiar face of the top four? The Tennis World had turned unpredictable for the first time in decades.
Eventually though, calmness was restored, and both Djokovic and Federer won their matches. But not before learning that they were no longer at the head of the pack. The comfortable days when they would literally win all the Grand Slams in a year between them had gone. They could no longer play pass the parcel with the Grand Slam Trophies. They were being chased relentlessly by a group of young, unforgiving, boisterous tennis players with savage playing styles.
It remains to be seen if these young guns can maintain their top form against the “Big Four”. But they’ve smelt blood. They’ve tasted what beating - or nearly beating - a top tennis player feels like. And along with this they’ve garnered bucket loads of experience. This experience will only help them get closer to defeating the royalty of tennis.
In the end keep an eye out for these upcoming tennis superstars. Who knows, the next Grand Slam may be captured by one of them! And if that happens, it would spell doom for the current generation of tennis stars. Remember, “Neither can live while the other survives.”
And oh! Also keep an eye out for another prophecy by Rafael Nadal. His predictions have an uncanny ability to be self fulfilling. Who knows? He maybe perfecting the esoteric art of divination, so that he can become a professional Crystal Gazer someday ;)
-Tejas Mehta
In the end keep an eye out for these upcoming tennis superstars. Who knows, the next Grand Slam may be captured by one of them! And if that happens, it would spell doom for the current generation of tennis stars. Remember, “Neither can live while the other survives.”
And oh! Also keep an eye out for another prophecy by Rafael Nadal. His predictions have an uncanny ability to be self fulfilling. Who knows? He maybe perfecting the esoteric art of divination, so that he can become a professional Crystal Gazer someday ;)
-Tejas Mehta