ATP Tour Finals without the ‘Big Three’ brings hope and frustration for tennis’ sandwich generation
TURIN, Italy – This is what they’ve been waiting for.
Some very good tennis players have converged here in northern Italy for the ATP Tour Finals, the most exclusive men’s tournament in the sport. Only the top eight available players will receive an invitation.
Novak Djokovic, the greatest player of his time, and perhaps of any era, is not there. He’s 37, a combination of injured and exhausted, trying to save himself for next year’s Grand Slams.
For the generation of players born in the mid-to-late 1990s, Djokovic’s absence represents a void they dreamed of for most of their careers. For the first time since 2001, no member of the sport’s Big Three (Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal) will be in the field for this event.
It’s a harbinger that will soon spread to the rest of the tennis calendar, removing the top layer of the sandwich that has for years squeezed out all those bright players from the Grand Slams and Masters 1000s in the years leading up to the 21st century. born. . When Djokovic won the 2023 US Open, he secured the Big Three’s 66th title in 79 majors. They played each other so often in finals and semi-finals that players born in the 1990s barely had the chance to lose in the late stages of tournaments, let alone imagine winning.
“I think the mental coping I did was playing against Djokovic every time I was in the quarters,” said Taylor Fritz, 27, at this year’s US Open. Fritz would reach his first Grand Slam semi-final there and then his first final. He lost to Jannik Sinner, who, along with Carlos Alcaraz, is the avatar of how Djokovic and Nadal (who retires after the Davis Cup this month at age 38) stuck around just long enough to complete their wreck of the sandwich . tennis life of the generation.
Just when they thought the Big Three would stop sucking up all the oxygen, a 19-year-old from Murcia and a 21-year-old from the Dolomites entered the Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2022 and played five sets of computer game tennis. leaving the 1990s group out of breath again. In the two years since that quarter-final, Alcaraz and Sinner have won six majors between them and have both spent time as world No. 1, a position the latter currently occupies.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have grown accustomed to holding trophies (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Djokovic won the other majors. The sandwich was pressed again.
“I think those guys are younger, but they’ve done better than, let’s say, the kids from the ’90s, whatever you or I want to call them,” said 25-year-old Casper Ruud, a three-time Grand Slam finalist , in a news report. conference on Monday. Ruud lost to Alcaraz in the final of the ill-fated 2022 US Open; Nadal and Djokovic destroyed him in consecutive years at Roland Garros.
“They are almost in a class of their own this year.”
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This is not how tennis normally goes.
There was an interregnum between the dominance of Pete Sampras/Andre Agassi in the 1990s and the rise of Federer, and then Nadal and Djokovic. There was time for the Patrick Rafters and Marat Safins and Carlos Moyas and Juan Carlos Ferreros to get a piece of the spotlight. Later, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka fought their way to major titles; Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic took chances when they came.
It’s unlikely that there will be another interregnum anytime soon, but there are glimmers of that kind of light. Ruud recorded his first victory over Alcaraz in five attempts here on Monday, taking advantage of an opponent playing in the weather in his worst environment: indoors, on a fast pitch. He then acknowledged that Alcaraz’s error-strewn match contributed greatly to his success as he looks to play more aggressively to reach the heights the Spaniard and Sinner have achieved in tennis.
“It’s not in the nature of my game,” said Ruud. “I hesitate a little if I have to be too aggressive. But I try.”
‘Try again. Failed again. Fail better,” wrote Samuel Beckett.
That’s pretty much what tennis has become for Ruud’s generation, which also includes Fritz, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, all of whom are here in Turin.
Andrey Rublev is among the group of players trying to step out of the shadow of the Big Three (Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images)
Some seem to manage the process better than others.
Medvedev, the most successful member of the group, is in the middle of an intense struggle to find motivation. Mentally and physically exhausted, he has reached the end of his limits. “Every training is a battle, every match is a battle,” the six-time Grand Slam finalist and 2021 US Open champion said at a news conference on Sunday after losing to Fritz in straight sets.
Not long ago, Medvedev even blew Sinner away, racking up six wins in a row with his seductive defense and serve. Since then, a shoulder problem, turnovers and the Italian’s development have set him back. Alcaraz’s ability to dominate the front of the pitch has negated the deep return strategy that Medvedev used to throw so many opponents off balance.
Medvedev, 28, is a former world number 1. Zverev, 27, is the current world No. 2 and has won this tournament twice, but he says he knows he only holds that position on the ATP computer.
When they are at the top of their sport, they can feel like they are running too. Tennis does that to you.
Zverev on Monday evening in Rublev took on another leading member of the sandwich generation, who is 28 and always teetering on the edge of another unpleasant incident of self-flagellation. He has bloodied himself several times in the past year. As if rubbing salt in wounds, the match was postponed by about twenty minutes, with the ATP awarding Sinner the trophy for finishing the year as world No. 1.
There probably wasn’t a good time for the ceremony to take place. This Tour final is actually a sandwich generation convention. It was going to be awkward either way.
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Like Ruud and Fritz, Zverev has embraced the challenge of trying to match Alcaraz and Sinner, if not every week or season, but at least during a two-week, seven-match stretch in which he can win a hitherto elusive Grand Slam win. . He is an Olympic gold medalist but has said all the other tournaments he has won will ultimately mean nothing unless he ticks one of the four majors.
To that end, Zverev has essentially abandoned any results he could achieve this fall. Last month he practiced for an hour every day after his matches as he rolled to the title in the last major major tournament of the year, the Paris Masters.
He said he was happy with the result. He’d rather win than not. Who wouldn’t do that? But he remains focused almost exclusively on improvement, and if that means heading to the court in Paris with tired legs, so be it. The 2025 Australian Open was just over two months away at the time and is now closer; By then, Zverev wants to play the kind of tennis the game requires.
Alexander Zverev continues to search for an elusive Grand Slam (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)
Like Ruud, he believes he needs to play more aggressively to have a chance of staying on the field with Sinner and Alcaraz.
“If they get an easy ball, if they’re in an attacking position, 90 percent of the time the point is over, whether it’s a winner or an unforced error,” he said. “They hit the ball that hard, they are that aggressive. I think I can still improve in that area. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
After the Sinner show he did very well against Rublev yesterday, winning 6-4, 6-4, pushing the field and putting away a point almost every time he had a chance, almost every time he got the chance to put away a point. when the opportunities weren’t there.
None of this means that all hope is lost and that Sinner and Alcaraz will win everything that matters for a decade. That just doesn’t happen. As Ruud noted on Monday after his victory: “They are also human. I mean, they will lose games, just not that many in a year.”
Sinner can still be held back by off-field forces greater than any player. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is seeking a one- or two-year ban in its appeal against his doping case, which it filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in September.
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Earlier this year, Sinner tested positive twice for clostebol, an anabolic steroid. Three tribunals convened by tennis’ anti-doping authorities accepted his explanation that the substance accidentally entered his system after his physiotherapist used it to treat a cut on his own finger and then gave Sinner a massage. WADA also accepts this explanation, but believes that he should bear some responsibility for the actions of his support team.
Until then, the players will have to keep trying to figure out how to topple him and Alcaraz on the court.
Today (Tuesday) it’s Fritz’s turn, as he and Sinner will duel in a rematch of September’s US Open final, in which Sinner won by doing what Fritz does, but doing it a little better – and by his to adjust return position when his opponent has gained some momentum.
Fritz has not been in the top 10 like his European colleagues since the late 1920s. He’s only recently become a serious threat with a ticking clock, trying to maximize his potential before it’s too late.
(Top photo: Nicolo Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
