Opinion – James Spencer (Twitter – @jspencer28)
By the time tennis legend Roger Federer returns to men’s tennis this summer, the landscape of the ATP Tour will be very different.
This has been the case for Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal as well, who have both endured lengthy absences.
The Serb’s two-month exile from the tour, due to his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and subsequent tournament bans.
Whilst the Spaniard has suffered from a crack rib recently, and a foot issue last year.
During this time, Carlos Alcaraz has surged to the top as a serious threat and competitor to the big three, who will already be glancing over their shoulders with concern.
The 18-year-old won the Miami Masters, the third youngest player in history to win an elite level Masters 1000 tournament.
This was then followed up with an impressive win at the Barcelona ATP 500 at the weekend.
There seems to be no stopping this boy, who has now climbed as high as world number 9.
It won’t be long that we see him cracking the top five.
Other new stars have emerged in Denmark’s Casper Rudd, Russia’s Andriy Rublev, and Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime.
Denis Shapovalov is another, lacking in consistency, but showing the talent worthy of going deep in a Grand Slam.
There seems to be no stopping this boy, who has now climbed as high as world number 9.
It won’t be long that we see him cracking the top five.
Other new stars have emerged in Denmark’s Casper Rudd, Russia’s Andriy Rublev, and Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime.
Denis Shapovalov is another, lacking in consistency, but showing the talent worthy of going deep in a Grand Slam.
It was once Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray, the big four dominating week in, week out.
With most notably Juan Martin Del Potro, David Ferrer, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic the supporting cast.
Injuries and retirements, and most of all age beset them.
Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Nick Kyrgios were all tipped to win a Grand Slam as the next breakthrough of stars.
However, they all fell by the wayside.
The last wave was Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Matteo Berrettini, but only one of those has been able to win a Slam. (Medvedev)
It certainly looks like now with the rise of Alcaraz, Sebastian Korda, Sinner and others, tennis is approaching a new dawn, and I can’t wait to see it unfold.
