Spare a thought for the lost generation of men's tennis

Between the reign of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and the rise of the new kids on the court, Sinner and Alcaraz, a generation of talented players has largely missed out on Grand Slam success

- By Ed Stoddard

Novak Djokovic. Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer. Photos: Getty Images

(Getty Images)

The men's US Open in 2014 was considered seminal at the time because it was the first Grand Slam final in 10 years that did not feature someone whose surname was Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray.

The lanky, big-serving Croatian Marin Čilić won the encounter, defeating Japan's Kei Nishikori. It was a year that produced two new men's Grand Slam champions - Stan "The Man" Wawrinka won the 2014 Australian Open, defeating Rafael Nadal in the final.

A new page in the history of the men's game seemed to be turning, serving notice to the next generation that the "Big Four" were human after all and the court of play was opening up. In reality, there was only a "Big Three", but Andy Murray was often included in those days.

The subsequent pages of tennis history turned out to be in many ways carbon copies of the decade that preceded the 2014 US Open final.

It was another six years, at the US Open in 2020, before a men's Grand Slam final would have two players whose surnames were not Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray.

And that would probably not have been the case had Novak Djokovic not been defaulted out of the tournament in the fourth round when he hit a ball towards the baseline in frustration, accidentally smacking a line judge in the throat in the process.

In that final five-set thriller, Austria's Dominic Thiem rallied from two sets down to defeat Germany's Alexander Zverev. Thiem was 27 at the time, Zverev was 23, and Djokovic - the youngest of the Big Three counting Nadal and Federer - was 33.