Novak wins his 20th Grand Slam tying Federer and Nadal. If he wins the US Open he will the first man to win all 4 in a calendar year since Rod Laver in 1969. Since 2005 one of the Big 3 has won every slam event except the following: Australian Open: Safin (2005), Wawrinka (2014) French Open: Wawrinka (2015) Wimbledon: Murray (2013, 2016) US Open: Del Potro (2009), Murray (2012), Cilic (2014), Wawrinka (2016), Thiem (2020) What a run by three of the greatest tennis players ever.
Back in the 70's when I played Tennis and not Golf I thought I would never see a player as good as Rod Laver, then I thought the greatest was Bjorn Borg who was unbeatable till he got bored with all the winning! Then I thought nobody was ever going to be as good as Pete Sampras, but then along came Nadal and Federer yeah those guys were the best ever... Now it's looking like Djokovic is the man. Who will be the next? He's 34 so while he clearly is still the best he's not getting younger.
I agree Terry. Every new generation causes a new “greatest ever” argument. But, the domination these three guys have exhibited for the past 15 years seems unprecedented.
Like Terry I played a lot of tennis when I was younger. One November day while I was practicing in snow flurries at ND I decided it wasn't much fun anymore. Besides there were a couple of guy who were on scholarship and I resented that I wasn't. I used to go to Forrest Hills every year and watch the championships which back then were on grass like Wimbledon. Back then the US had players like McKinley, Ashe, and my favorite Denny Ralston. it's hare to believe that the US is not competitive in men's tennis. Bob, I didn't know you were such a fan of tennis. Golf used to have it's big three but they were not nearly as dominant as the big boys are in tennis.
I read recently an article that the lack of clay courts in the USA might be a factor for the decline in American tennis. Modern equipment has have reduced the ability to win with a serve and volley game like Laver and McEnroe since all of the good players now hit bombs with their ground strokes with incredible accuracy. The article theorized that the slower clay courts, common in Europe, give players the opportunity to develop & refine their ground strokes and develop strategies of tactical play with ground strokes But, Serena grew up playing on concrete courts in Compton and has dominated women’s tennis until recent years and Novak’s ability to sneak in to the net today and hit winning volleys helped him hold off a young player. And Nadal did not GS in places other than Paris till he improved his serve and developed a better net game. But, did think it was an interesting explanation. Envy that you got to watch the greats at Forest Hills.
Stan Smith, Roscoe Tanner, and others. We really had a run of being the clear best in the world on every surface except clay in Europe. Aussies and the US were the dominant.