The golden generation of tennis

Coming from the war-ravaged country of Serbia, Novak Djokovic started his journey to the top by winning the 2008 Australian Open and becoming the first player from his country to win a Grand Slam singles title. He solidified his legacy by winning three Grand Slams in 2011, becoming the sixth male player in the Open Era to win three Grand Slams in a calendar year in the process. Known as Djoker for his on-court impersonations of fellow players, Djokovic is a proud holder of 6 Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic singles bronze. A proud son of Serbia, he broke the duopoly of Federer and Rafa over world tennis and currently holds the status of the best player in the world.

The last cog in this wheel is the man from Glasgow, Scotland – Andy Murray. A player with immense potential, Murray was considered to be lacking the finishing touch, almost getting there and falling at the last hurdle. Shouldering the expectations of all of Britain, he, for the most part of his career, been under pressure to become the first British player since 1977, and the first British man since 1936, to win a Grand Slam singles tournament.

He shed a bucketload of tears after losing the 2012 Wimbledon final to Roger Federer. However, he came back to the same venue to win an Olympic singles gold by ironically beating the same man he lost to in the Wimbledon final. He finally ended his Grand Slam drought and fulfilled his destiny by winning the US Open in the same year, and has since established himself as a leading player of his generation.

With the end of one era, starts another. Tennis fans were in search of their new hero once Pete Sampras retired and Andre Agassi followed suit. Many players flattered to deceive by winning a Grand Slam and fading away. Others stuck around for some time, but soon faded into oblivion. It was at this time a ponytailed Federer burst on the scene and the fans found their hero in the form of the Swiss maestro, who, with all his grace and precision, helped usher in a new era in the world of tennis.

After years of complete domination, he found his match in and was joined by three of his great rivals; and it has been an absolute treat to watch them in action. With their consistency and domination, they have gone on to separate themselves from the rest of the pack; it’s the “Big Four”, and the others.

With regards to the other top players of today, one can only imagine how frustrating must it be to work hard every day only to end up on the losing side. More often than not, they find themselves in tournaments just to make the numbers. Such has been the quartet’s dominance that in the last five years, that only one player outside the top four, Juan Martin Del Potro, can call himself a Grand Slam winner, having won the 2009 US Open.

From the heat of Melbourne Park to the red soil of Roland Garros, and from the serene and royal Wimbledon Lawns to the glamorous Flushing Meadows, the game of tennis has been privileged by the presence of a number of legends, each of whom were a part of a generation, and so is the case today. However, everything, good or bad, ends one day. There will be a time when someone will rise and challenge their authority, and possibly one day start a generation of his own. And we can only wait.

Thankfully for us, that day is nowhere near in sight and we can continue to enjoy the game of these four gentlemen, who have gone on to form the “Golden Generation”.