Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Sep 2020
- Posts
- 3,906
Just because 3 of the greatest players of all time (the greatest in terms of pure numbers) dominated an era it doesn't mean that those that have come at the end of that era are poor. It's a damned hard act to follow.
The mental fortitude and tactical flexibility seems to be what's lacking most, the ability to find a way back into a match when things aren't going their way.
Alcaraz seems to have that, being able to overcome rough patches and find solutions. He's still young so could still find the consistency to become a dominant player. Whether or not he can get to the same level as the big 3 remains to be seen, but I can see him winning well north of 10 slams if he remains fit and keeps improving.
Think you can make the argument they are poor due to getting beat by consistently early doors by players they should be beating comfortably. Players who the 37 year old Novak is beaten with ease despite being injured.
Lets take the next gen tournament that started almost a decade ago. Starting with the winners we’ve got Chung who went on a massive heater knocked Novak out at the R4 of the AO then got a blister against roger who just looked at him like ‘‘i’ve got you’’. Pulled out and hasn’t been seen since.
Tsits has had a couple of slam finals going 2 sets up to Novak then completely collapsing, isn’t nearly consistent enough hasn’t gotten into the second week of wimbledon or the US for example.
Sinner/Alcaraz look the real deal.
Nakashima hasn’t got to the second week of a slam and has only got to the 3rd round of masters event once.
Next chap Medjedovic has only qualified for 1 slam this year - harsh as he’s only 20 though to be fair.
Couple of the runners up/gone deep who’ve made good careers but aren’t getting anywhere near winning a slam. Rublev, de Minaur, Tiafoe etc
It’s very similar to the snooker, with the class of 92 still basically dominating the game. They’ve been calling out the youth players as well. Same with I think it was eddy hearn who said the youngsters need to get a grip of themselves.
A top 30 player in tennis is a super wealthy player, purely guessing but that may be an issue with the motivational side of it.