Dominic Thiem won the US Open 2020, his first Grand Slam title in the 4th final. He faced Alexander Zverev in the final in which he got the victory, the previous three outings were lost by the combination of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The last 13 Grand Slams, starting from Australian Open 2017, have been won by either Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic. This year’s US Open was looking for an 18th Grand Slam title for Djokovic before his dramatic exit from the tournament after hitting the ball unintentionally to the line umpire in the neck.
But the question is, how long and how far can the Big 3 go? Since 2004, they have been dominating the world of tennis. First, it was Roger Federer who dominated the era, then Rafael Nadal, and now its Novak Djokovic. From the 2003 Wimbledon Championships, the Big 3 have accumulated to won 56 of 68 Grand Slam titles. Federer is sitting at the top of the tree with 20 titles with Nadal and Djokovic not far away and ready to catch him with 19 and 17 titles respectively.
The Big 3
Have occupied the year-end top three positions for eight years; 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019. Since 2004, one of the members of Big 3 have ended the year as world number one apart from 2016 when Andy Murray achieved the feat.
But what is the future of Big 3? Will they continue to dominate the same way as they have done in the past or the next generation will take them over?
With Federer already 39-years old, it will be difficult for him to keep the fitness and game level required at the highest level. Yes, he can reach the later stages of the tournaments but winning Grand Slams now seems difficult for him. However, Nadal and Djokovic are 34 and 33 years old respectively, and most probably have at least 3-4 years of competitive tennis in them.
Both are still winning big titles, Majors, and are on the way to surpass Federer in the race of most Grand Slam titles. With Djokovic dominating the tour tournament after tournament he looks set to lead the Big 3 with Nadal also be competing for Masters and Majors. Both of the junior men are still pretty much ahead from the rest of the players and will dominate the tour for at least a couple of years.
Talking of the next set of players, the field is set with Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev. All of them have reached the semifinals of the US Open 2020. All of them have beaten the members of Big 3 and are giving a tough time to each member in almost every match. It might be not long away when we see Grand Slam champions from these players.
The Next Gen Tennis Stars
Going further down, we have Denis Shapovalov, Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Borna Coric all set to compete and win at the highest competitive level. All players have some achievements, wins, and big wins under their belt. Although they might get beaten by Big 3 members for now but they are a certain threat to these big names and look set to take the men’s tennis forward after the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.