In sports, you have dynasties and rivalries that create storylines to be talked about for decades. In the world of tennis, which is a year long sport, it is very difficult to dominant tournament over tournament, year over year. Health and consistency is always an issue because you are playing multiple sets and multiple matches per tournament to capture the titles. In the 90s, we had the emergence of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Pete Sampras won his 1st Grand Slam, the US Open, in 1990, while Andre Agassi won his 1st, the Wimbledon Championship, in 1992. Pete ended up winning 14 Grand Slams and Andre won 8 Grand Slams with the last one being in 2002 and 2003 respectively.
At the 2003 Wimbledon, we saw the emergence of maybe the 2 best tennis players ever in history. Rafael Nadal played in his 1st Grand Slam competition, while the bigger introduction was reserved for the Future King of Wimbledon, Mr Roger Federer. Up until now, Wimbledon was Pete Sampras' realm as he won a record 7 titles between 1993 and 2000. Not sure if anyone saw the potential in Federer back then, but Wimbledon would become his kingdom as he went on to claim 8 titles between 2003 and 2017. 2003 also saw the end of an annual American Grand Slam Champion dating back to 1989 with Michael Chang and then continuing on with the likes of Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, and Andy Roddick. Following his 1st Grand Slam victory in 2003, Federer would start to make his run as the greatest ever by winning 11 out of 12 of the next Australian Opens, Wimbledons, and US Opens from 2004 to 2007. The only one he lost was the 2005 Australian Open to Marat Safin, losing in a tough 5 set semifinals. The one major that eluded Federer was the French Open, which was played on clay, and this is where Nadal left his mark literally and figuratively. The combination of the clay surface as well as his highly athletically intensive play style was a match made in heaven as he strung together a streak of 4 straight French Opens from 2005 to 2008.
A pattern was developing between 2004 to 2007 with the Grand Slam dominance of Federer and Nadal. They were clearly the 2 best players in the world, but could anyone compete with them, especially at the Grand Slams. A young, up and coming Serbian looked primed to challenge them as he rose to #3 in the world and started winning some of the bigger non Grand Slam tournaments and he finally broke through at the 2008 Australian Open. Both Federer and Nadal made it to the semifinals of this tournament, but were upset by Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Djokovic ended a 3 year streak, where either Federer or Nadal had won every Grand Slam tournament. Nadal won the French open once again, but then at Wimbledon, in one of the best matches in tennis history, Nadal won the 5th set 9-7 to capture his 1st Grand Slam not on clay. Federer came back later that year to claim his 5th in a row US Open Championship, which was his 13th Grand Slam. The next 2 years saw Federer and Nadal reclaim their dominance with Federer winning 3 more and Nadal winning 4 more Grand Slams. The "Big Four" had emerged and solidified their spot at the top of the tennis rankings year over year with Federer and Nadal leading the charge and Djokovic and Murray following closely behind them.
Djokovic had shown a glimpse of his immense talent in 2008 when he won the Australian Open, but 2011 was his coming out party and he set the court on fire. Djokovic won a total of 10 tournaments in 2011 including 3 Grand Slams and a record-breaking 5 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles, which all added up to over $12 million in prize money. Federer dropped to #3 in the world and didn't win a Grand Slam, his first drought year since 2003. Nadal kept the #2 seed and his French Open dominance (he would actually win 9 out of 10 titles between 2005 and 2014). The next year was truly the year of the "Big Four" as each of them won a Grand Slam title with Djokovic taking the Australian, Nadal taking the French, Federer taking Wimbledon, and last but not least Murray winning the US Open after taking the Gold Medal at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Murray finally emerged out of the shadows of the other 3 and had his Grand Slam along with a Gold Medal. 2013 was tough for Federer as he struggled with injuries, while the other 3 kept the "Big Four" dominating.
2014 saw the "Big Four" take a dip with them only winning 2 of the 4 Grand Slams that year, Stan Wawrinka won his 1st at the Australian Open and Marin Cilic also won his 1st at the US Open. 2015 would the 1st year in a very long time that neither Federer or Nadal would be relevant in the Grand Slams. Djokovic, who always played the 3rd fiddle to Federer and Nadal, saw his chance and he did not let it go to waste. Starting at the 2015 Australian Open, Djokovic won 5 out of the next 6 Grand Slams, capping it all off at the 2016 French Open, where he completed his Career Grand Slam as well as becoming only the 3rd player in history to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. Stan Wawrinka was a main stay in the Grand Slams and won an additional 2 titles: 2015 French Open and 2016 US Open. Andy Murray also added Grand Slam #3 with the 2016 Wimbledon title. At the end of 2016, Federer was ranked #16 and Nadal was ranked #9, far from their days at #1 and #2, but there was something different about these two. Federer and Nadal worked their way through the field and met in the 2017 Australian Open Finals. This was another back and forth 5 set match, but Federer came out on top and started the renaissance. Nadal ran through everyone at the French. Federer came back and did the same to everyone at Wimbledon. And Nadal completed the year with a US Open title. By the end of the year, Nadal was #1 and Federer was #2, they had reclaimed their positions at #1 and #2 in the world once again.
2018 felt like a blast from the past as Federer reclaimed the #1 seed and added his 20th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. Then Nadal didn't want to fall behind, so he added his 17th Grand Slam title and 11th at Roland Garros / French Open. 2018 felt like an exact repeat of 2017 with Federer at #1 and Nadal at #2 going into Wimbledon. Federer got bounced in the quarterfinals by Kevin Anderson in a crazy 5 set match, which ended 13-11 in the 5th set. And then Anderson followed that up with the longest match ever, going another 5 sets ending 26-24. Eventual champion, Djokovic took down Nadal in 5 sets and then beat Anderson in straight sets in the finals. Djokovic is now at 13 Grand Slam titles and the "Big Four" have returned. Andy Murray has been out with injury for the past year and hasn't been able to compete at a high level in a long time, but many still regard him as one of the best players in the world when he is healthy. I would not be surprised at all if in 2019, we see a full resurgence of the "Big Four" where they will occupy the top 4 seeds in the world once again and tennis will have seen these guys for over 15 years now.
Comments