For many fans, 2008 to 2012 will be remembered as some of the best years to ever grace the game, there was everything from emergence of the ‘Big 4’ to the Nadal vs Federer epic at Wimbledon in 2008. Since the beginning of 2013 it’s pretty clear that tennis has taken a wrong turn, perhaps surprisingly given how competitive and high quality the previous year turned out to be.
With Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray all sharing a slam each in 2012 and a number of high quality tense affairs being produced, such as the World Tour Finals, Wimbledon and Australian Open finals, the sport’s future looked great, for the next few years at least. Unfortunately whether you’re a huge tennis fan or not it’s clear that the sport has dropped a few levels since early 2013 and there’s no doubt many reasons for it.
The ATP Game Is Down Right Now
The next-generation haven’t delivered
The generation of Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray along with the likes of Berdych, Tsonga, Soderling, Del Potro and Ferrer was great as we’ve established but what happens when many of these players age and aren’t the same as they once were? Well logically, young players should step up and rise to the top of the game and take over. Whether it be to the game getting more physical or the younger players just not being good enough it hasn’t happened.
The players that many expected to become stars are the likes of Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, Bernard Tomic and Kei Nishikori. Despite Raonic, Nishikori, and Dimitrov having broken the top 10, they only share a mere one slam final between them. The youngest of those names mentioned is almost 23, and when Rafael Nadal was that age he had 6 slams in comparison.
Yes these guys still have time but right now the lack of quality from their generation right now is hurting the game when it’s clear new stars are needed. When you look even further down the line the generation after them looks more promising with Alexander Zverev, Borna Coric and Andrey Rublev, the first two being 18 years old and in the top 100 with the latter 17 and making big strides to join them.
There’s no ‘Big 4’, ‘Big 3’ or even ‘Big 2’, it’s just Novak Djokovic
When Novak Djokovic dominated 2011 winning 3 of the 4 majors including a 43 match winning streak it was because he was at his absolute best and relentless. This year he also won 3 slams but in no way was it the same. If anything outside of the latter rounds at Wimbledon the Serb was poor at the Australian Open and US Open.
In Melbourne the Serb struggled against a poor Stan Wawrinka in the semis even going a set without hitting a single winner and struggled just as much in the first few sets in the final against British #1 Andy Murray. In New York it wasn’t much difference, he was almost taken to a 5th set by left-hander Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-finals, and in the final despite coming home with the title the World #1 was beyond lackluster for his standards.
That’s exactly what the issue is now, every slam is in Novak Djokovic’s hands and besides an excellent performance by Stan Wawrinka in the Roland Garros final to deny the 10 time grand slam champion a career slam no one else has taken advantage of the Novak Djokovic we have seen in slams this year. I quite like the Serb myself but when tennis is predictable with a player dominating slams and most other events without playing anywhere near what he’s capable of it raises questions about the rest of the field and that’s the bigger problem here.
Mostly everyone else has… not been at their best.
Like I just said the bigger issue is perhaps with the rest of the field. Since 2013 many of the big players have had injuries which have affected them greatly. Andy Murray has suffered both back and knee injuries and since coming back in 2014 he hasn’t been the same player that won the 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon titles. Although currently World #2 with a slam final this year there’s still some more recovery and time needed to be back at the level he would want to rival the man ranked above him. Right now the H2H between the pair is only growing with it currently at 19-9 to the Serb.
The same can be said about Rafael Nadal, back and knee injuries have plagued the Spaniard throughout his career and have again since mid-2014. While coming back earlier this year the former World #1 has struggled immensely not making the semi-finals of any major this year. Despite still being in the top 10 and likely to make the season ending World Tour Finals in London.
My point is despite several big names being right at the top of the game it doesn’t reflect the reality of the level they’re playing at, long ago are the times where all the men at the top of the game were producing great tennis. In turn with many of the top players having major injuries the quality of tennis has declined and while this may sound small, there’s a huge butterfly effect. The top players need to push one another to become great and in turn the field below work harder to try and take down these players and in recent years such effect has been lacking and thus the quality of the tennis being on display being worse.
There’s no doubt a few reasons why tennis isn’t the same as it once was such as those I have mentioned as well others such as the homogenization, a factor reducing the number of effective game styles and diversity in the game. While mens tennis isn’t in the greatest of states there is hope however, if the likes of Rafael Nadal can fully recover once again and the next-generation start producing we could enter another great period in tennis.
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