The Big Four's Dominance in Tennis
Over the past two years, the big four in tennis have reemerged into the talk of winning majors. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray dominated men’s tennis for years, winning almost every title. Even with the little drop off lately, the number of majors the big four have totalled recently considering their age is ridiculous. Federer won the Australian Open, Nadal won the French Open, and Djokovic won Wimbledon, with all these titles only boosting each of there respective legacies.
The success is shocking considering the amount of young talent on the come up. A couple of players, such as Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas are young up and coming stars that will dominate the game eventually. Everyone thought they would start to take over as the big four continued to get older, but everyone was wrong. Zverev is three in the world, and the highest ranked out of the new generation, but even he doesn’t phase the big four. Federer had beaten him three out of five times, which is extraordinary because of how they only had played each other when Federer was way out of his prime.
Dominic Thiem did not fare any better against the tennis elites, with Nadal beating him in seven out of the ten times they have played. Even on clay, Thiem’s best surface, Nadal took care of him by winning the French Open. It is going to make one of the young players to break through and win a major if they want to finally put the big four’s multi-generational domination to an end. The biggest issue with Thiem dethroning the Big Four is the mental roadblock that will always be there. The Big Four have this aura around them, almost a cocky one that they will never be beaten. This threatens many of the young challengers that are physically talented enough, but not mentally tough enough to beat them.
The youngest out of the three younger generation stars is Stefanos Tsitsipas. Talent is not lacking in his game, but the lack of experience often kills him. This tends to show up in bigger tournaments, like the majors where the Big Four are comfortable and have dominated for years. In the one meeting against Nadal at the Barcelona Open, he lost in a dominating fashion 2-6, 6-1. If Nadal can beat Stefanos after his prime, every other top-ranked player should immediately turn their heads in respect.
With none of these three young players even having a positive record against one of the Big Four, their dominance is present and will continue until this generation steps up. Every generation top player dominance comes to an end eventually, but it is the longevity and continuous domination even at ages over thirty that impresses everyone on the Big Four's generation specifically.