The best of the best in tennis are maintaining their peak powers for far longer than was once the norm
Oh, him again. Photo: Ella Ling/Shutterstock On Sunday in Melbourne, 35-year-old Rafael Nadal notched perhaps his most breathtaking victory in a career full of breathtaking victories, coming back from two-set deficit to defeat young Russian star Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open final. The five hour, 24 minute affair — why, oh why did I allot a mere five hours on my DVR?? — was vintage Rafa.
For Rafa partisans — and there were a lot of them in Sunday’s boisterous crowd — the prospect of a 55-year old, fully bald Nadal showing the kids how it’s done may be attractive. But from my perspective, Sunday’s result was a bit of a bummer. Over the last few years, I’ve found that the thrill of watching a trio of tennis demigods utterly dominate the sport has begun to mingle with a gnawing impatience for someone else to join the club already.
But I would still find it a bit unsettling. In a sport where it used to be fairly commonplace for four different men to capture each of the year’s Grand Slam titles, the story of the last 20 years has been extreme consolidation at the top. Since Federer got the Big Three ball rolling with his Wimbledon victory in 2003, he, Djokovic, and Nadal have accounted for a difficult-to-fathom 61 out of the 74 major titles.
The 25-year-old Medvedev, the only one to actually defeat one of the champs in a major final, is in a different category, especially mentally. Watching him rise to the top of the game has been invigorating, and not just because of the newness factor. Medvedev’s idiosyncratic, ugly-effective style is strangely mesmerizing. He moves shockingly well for a big man. And his personality is a welcome change, too.
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