Smash Bros. Tennis Battle! The world's first change ten times in one and a half years, the "new three giants" of the old, middle-aged and young Communist Party?
The pattern of the "old, middle and young" big three probably will not last long, and the people who can form a long-term confrontation with Alcaraz in the future have not yet appeared.
In the first two Grand Slam Australian Open and French Open in 2023, Djokovic snatched back the world number one from Alcaraz, who was 16 years younger than him, and this year at Wimbledon he had the opportunity to stage "winner takes all" again, but ultimately lost to Alcaraz in the final, allowing the latter to successfully retain the world number one throne. As of July 17, Alcaraz's reign as of world number one has accumulated to 29 weeks, ranking 16th out of a total of 28 world number one in the ATP.
After deducting last year's Hamburg runner-up points, Alcaraz is still about 580 points ahead of De and is expected to be quite safe in first place until the end of the Toronto Masters on August 13, meaning that the first cumulative week will be at least 32 weeks, with Nastas 40 weeks, Murray 41 weeks and Kurten 43 weeks already within range. However, since Deyo will return to North America this year, Toronto, Cincinnati and the US Open are all net earners, so the battle for the world number one is still in suspense.
Of course, we can't forget Medvedev, the third place, although the points are still more than 2,000 points away from the top two, but last year he did not perform well in North America, this year's form after the recovery of a lot of room for points, this season's year-end first will basically be between the three. Interestingly, since Medvedev first reached the top on February 28, 2022, ending the 18-year monopoly rule of the "Big Four" over the world's No. 1, the throne of the ball king has rotated between the old, middle and young three people ten times!
The last time the ATP world number one changed more frequently than this time, it was in 1983 and 1984, but at that time it was basically the "two-person turn" of McEnroe and Rendell, two peers, like this "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" between the three generations of players after 85, 95 and 00, I am afraid it is the first time in history. In fact, since last year's US Open, most of the major tournament titles have also been won by three people: Alcaraz and Deyo each won two Grand Slams, Deyo won the finals, and of the five Masters tournaments already held this year, Alcaraz and Medvedev won two each.
Although the concept of the "Big Three" is now abused, it has to be said that in terms of points and tournament performance, in the past year cycle, the best and most stable performance in men's tennis is Alcaraz, Djokovic and Medvedev, and compared with Zverev, who once claimed to be one of the Big Three, and Sinner and Roone, who were hailed as the "Little Big Three of the 00s", as players who have won Grand Slam titles and reached the top of the world number one at the same time, these three are more worthy of the current "Big Three" Title.
The next question becomes: How long will this continue? After all, Deyo is 36 years old and his career is coming to an end, and Alcaraz's good times have just begun, and time is clearly on his side. In addition, in the two meetings this year, Alcaraz also won two consecutive victories against Medvedev, even leaving his opponent without a set! And Alcaraz is more well-rounded in a variety of venues, and Medvedev is slightly less competitive despite his huge breakthrough on clay and grass this year.
Therefore, this pattern of the "old, middle and young" big three probably will not last long, and the people who can form a long-term confrontation with Alcaraz in the future have not yet appeared, and if you want to see a close contest rather than a single family, in addition to hoping that Sinner and Rune can quickly keep up, you may also hope that someone younger than Alcaraz will appear - just like Nadal was to Federer back then.
Text | Yi Sang
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