Older players continue to dominate Grand Slam tennis

It’s not that the older players did not play in earlier eras or that they were not successful. In fact, Martina Navratilova, widely regarded as the greatest tennis player ever, won her last singles Grand Slam at the age of 34 (the 1990 US Open) and her last doubles Grand Slam at the age of 50 (the 2006 US Open mixed doubles trophy). Even Jimmy Connors had a long stint on the ATP men’s tour, reaching the US Open semi-finals at the age of 39 in 1991.

Martina Navratilova and Bob Bryan win the mixed doubles final against Kveta Peschke and Martin Damm at the 2006 US Open at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Queens, New York on September 9, 2006. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The fact that the age debate is playing up more predominantly today is because there was a period in the 90s and 2000s when it seemed like the younger players were going to take on the tennis world. From Martina Hingis and Michael Chang to Jennifer Capriati – these were young players who were winning Grand Slams and setting records. In fact, even in the later stages of tournaments more and more younger people were making the cut. Here’s an ESPN statistic to chew on: In women’s tennis, 15 Grand Slams were won by teenagers in the 90s, and that number crashed to just three in the 2000s. While the average age for a Grand Slam winner was under 21 in 2001, it was 27 in 2010.

Is this because of increasing fitness levels, changing racquet technologies or is there a more contextual problem here? One needs to understand that tennis players are also human beings. Being a teenager has never been easy and in today’s media obsessed days, that task has become even more arduous.

Who can forget the promising Jelena Dokic whose career was literally a day time soap opera playing out in the newspapers, or more recently Bernard Tomic, who has failed to live up to his potential, struggling with both his public image and a tumultuous relationship with his father. With multiple distractions and opinions, being a young tennis player is not easy.

One only needs to look at the evolution of Novak Djokovic – from the impersonating funny man who made it to the quarters and semis, to the World No.1 champion; Novak’s growth has come not just in his on court performances but also in the way he conducts himself, deals with expectation and soaks in pressure.

Youth vs. experience is a debate across sports. There are pros and cons to both sides of the argument. In a team sport, a healthy mix is possible. In tennis, it is the individual who has to be young and energetic while chasing a ball down from across one end of the court to the other, while showcasing maturity in dealing with being three break points down; all the time making sure that there is no foot in the mouth situation during any of the press interactions.

There will be those rare exceptions – prodigies who can not only play well but also have the tools that go into making a successful modern tennis player. But for the majority, there is hope in the fact that age is not just a number, at least not in tennis!