By Shahid Judge
The Australian Open ended with an overhead smash. And a rather symbolic one as well. For all of Novak Djokovic’s talent – the finest backhand in the globe, the tactical prowess, tireless legs, and a seemingly unbreakable defence – the overhead smash is his weakest shot.
But he attempted one, just about-a-no-look beauty on Championship Point, to win his ninth Australian Open crown and 18th Grand Slam title. It just went to show that regardless of the emergence of raw talent from the next generation of players, the Big 3 of tennis nevertheless have it in them to use their weakest weapons to haul in the richest rewards.
The newest pretender to the throne is the new World No 3 Daniil Medvedev, a talented but unconventional player who was rated the only player capable of toppling Djokovic’s unbeaten run at the Australian Open final – Djokovic has never ever lost any of the nine finals he’s played at the Rod Laver Arena. But Djokovic sent him packing 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in a match that lasted just an hour and 53 minutes.
The triumph requires him inside two of the record Grand Slam tally of 20 every won by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. And there appears to be no finish to the race to see who will be the ‘Greatest of All Time,’ the GOAT. On paper all indicators point that Djokovic, the youngest at 33, will overtake Nadal (34) and Federer (39) when they make a decision to hang up the racquet and watch what ever is left of a steadily disheartening men’s singles pack scramble for the Grand Slam titles now left at their mercy.
But for the previous 18 years, there’s been no one powerful sufficient to fight the Big 3 – save for probably Andy Murray and late-bloomer Stan Wawrinka – to overthrow them on the most significant stage. The numbers prove it.
Since Federer won his 1st title at Wimbledon in 2003, there have been 70 Grand Slams till the current one in Melbourne. The Big 3 have won 58 of them, and there have been just six summit clashes exactly where neither of them reached the final.
And when you take into account the globe rankings, you’d see an even higher hold on the tennis dynasty they’ve designed. The final player to have been ranked second in the globe, outdoors the Big 3 and former World No 1 Murray, was two-time significant winner Lleyton Hewitt. Nadal took more than that spot from the Australian on July 25, 2005. For the close to 16 years that followed, no one has managed to break that stronghold.
Djokovic joined the rivalry a bit later, beginning with his 1st significant title at the 2008 Australian Open. Then he flourished in the 2011 season by winning 3 of the 4 Slams, and by winning the 2016 French Open, became the 1st man given that Rod Laver (in 1969) to hold all 4 Grand Slam titles at the exact same time.
The charismatic, even though usually controversial Serbian, is an all court player. He’s dominated the challenging courts and has been just as devastating on the fabled grass of Wimbledon. You want only look as far as the 2019 final in London to see how he picked his moments to overcome Federer in what became the longest singles final in the tournament’s history – final 4 hours and 58 minutes.
By that logic, certainly, he has a couple of more challenging court significant titles coming his way, possibly even a couple of at Wimbledon – sufficient to overtake his seniors. Meanwhile Nadal, as he has been given that 2005, will be anticipated to continue winning the French Open. Federer on the other hand is anticipated to return to the tour just after more than a year at the ATP 250 in Doha on March 8. It’s uncertain what type the veteran Swiss will be in, but you can’t overlook the truth that the final time he was forced away from the tour for such a extended time, he returned to win 3 Slams.
The Grand Slam race will continue, but by Monday Djokovic will equal Federer’s record of most quantity of weeks as the World No 1, and break the record a week later. Federer occupied the top rated spot for 310 weeks, Djokovic is on 309 and Nadal on 209.
Those numbers will continue to develop with each and every passing week, with each and every Grand Slam that comes and goes. But for how extended?
The a great deal hyped NextGen, a talented group of youngsters nicely-advertised by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) – the governing body of men’s tennis – has been knocking on the door for a couple of years.
Medvedev is the eldest in that group at 25. He’s reached two significant finals, the current one at Melbourne and the 2019 US Open summit clash he lost to Nadal. World No 7 Alexander Zverev reached the final in New York final year.
They’ll continue banging on the door. The only query is when the Big 3, who are basking in the music of their dominance, will permit them to breakthrough.