Men's Tennis Year-End No. 1 Up for Grabs
Now that the grass court season is done and dusted, men's tennis finds itself back in time with the 30 years old-plus veterans tightening their stranglehold on the major titles. In 2017, we saw the resurgence of fan-favorites, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Now 2018 has seen the return of the anti-hero, Novak Djokovic to the honors board. With the tennis world so intent on the inevitability of another Federer vs Nadal final on Centre Court at SW19, Novak Djokovic, and Kevin Anderson took it upon themselves to upset the apple cart, and dash expectations of possibly the highest rated tennis match in television history.
The Wimbledon title, Djokovic's fourth and his 13th Grand Slam overall, sees him establish himself firmly in the midst of the year-end number 1 ranking debate, along with a spot at the coveted ATP World Tour Finals, where the top 8 ranked players compete for a title as big as any Grand Slam in terms of ranking points.
Rafael Nadal is still atop the leader-board for the Race to London having cleaned up the Masters' tournaments and French Open during clay season. He finds himself well ahead of the chasing pack with 5,760 points. Roger Federer, with an Australian Open and Indian Wells in the bag, finds himself second at 4,020 points. Alexander Zvererv (3,585 points), Juan Martin del Potro (3,380 points), and Novak Djokovic (3,355 points) round out the top 5 in the race to the year-end number one ranking.
Novak Djokovic finds himself in pole position to wrestle the number one spot away from Nadal or Federer simply because he has no points at all to defend during the upcoming hard-court and season-ending swing. With his win at Wimbledon, Djokovic is now among the favorites for the US Open title as well, a Slam he last won in 2015 when he defeated Roger Federer in the final.
The tennis fan fraternity that had gotten used to Federer vs Nadal over the last year and a half, now have to get used to the man who broke their previous hegemony atop the game. It is awe-inspiring to see three men who are all aged above 30 dominating the young guns who have been knocking on the doors of Grand Slam glory for the last two years. It does seem likely that those doors will remain shut to the NextGen over the next year or so as these great champions don't look at all like slowing down in their pursuit to create unbeatable records.
Djokovic's favorable head-to-head against Nadal and Federer (as well as Andy Murray) sees him possibly as a leading candidate to add the most number of Grand Slams to his collection among the Big-3. His style of play is also suited to all surfaces and gives him a greater chance to add more big titles, especially since Roger Federer has given up on clay season.
At the end of it all, it seems we will have a Grand Slam count with Roger Federer at 21, Rafael Nadal at 18, and Novak Djokovic at 17.