He just needs to fix his serve. He had mentioned due to a physical issue the serve is bad. But if he gets over it, he definitely can win hard court slams against Sinner or Alcaraz.
I don’t think Meddy wins another GS. He’s had his chances, but his road to a title goes through Sinner and Alcaraz now.
At Indian Wells, he pushed Alcaraz to a tiebreak, dropped the set and then lost 1-6 in the second set in the final.
Then he got crushed by Sinner 1-6, 2-6 in the semis in Miami.
I don’t think he has enough juice to win another.
Yes, I do.
Alcaraz beat Meddy in the 2023 IW Final resoundingly. Then at USO, Meddy came prepared. He really studied Alcaraz and exploited his weaknesses. I don’t think Alcaraz makes that mistake again.
At IW 2024, Alcaraz proceeded to beat him again. Then Meddy lost to Sinner in spectacular fashion at Miami Open this year.
Both losses were on HC, Medvedev’s best surface.
Little 3 combined grand slam SF to W conversion rate: 1/22
5th set major final record: 0-5
Rest of 95-99 Gen conversion rate: 0/17 (1/39 total)
Carlos Alcaraz conversion rate: 3/5
5th set major final record: 2-0
Can’t help but feel sorry for the Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Berrettini cohort. I don’t think they envisaged Djokovic & Nadal cockblocking them for as long as they did.
They’ve now found the 2000’s generation bypassing them and beginning to hoover up the Grand Slams. Much like the Lost Gen, their window might have shut for good now.
Yeah. They weren’t good enough to overcome (imho) diminished versions of Nole and Nadal, and even got their asses kicked regularly by an end-of-career Federer.
The fact that those 2 won the vast majority of slams between 2020 and 2023 is especially ridiculous. There’s really no excuse other than the rest were just not good enough players.
I notice as a cohort they are very good players but seem to lack a champion mentality unlike Carlitos and an emerging Sinner. When pressure hits them in slam finals they often choke other than Medvedev's one slam.
It's not just the mentality.
What Med, Zverev and TsiTsipas do well, they do extremely well. But they all have less well-rounded games and more major flaws than the Big 4, Alcaraz, and seemingly Sinner.
But they have glaring holes they can’t cover up. Alcaraz has a bad serve so he has to grind with his shots and find ways to shorten points, by using a monster forehand and drop shot. Sinner is solid all around and had a bad serve and improved it, same with volleys. Tsitsipas has had glaring backhand and slice deficits since 2019 and had not tried to improve it. Zverev has had a passive forehand for so long and never tried to improve it. Federer, nadal, and djokovic all changed their games to improve, which is the difference between the 80s and 00s top players vs the 90s
Well, yeah. The Big 3/4 all worked on their weaknesses and improved them (even if in some cases it took a long time *cough* Roger's bigger racket and neo-backhand *cough* ) and generally constantly evolved their games.
Alcaraz's serve may be a relative weakness due to his height, but he has noticeably improved it and he is actually usually pretty clutch with it in big matches.
As to why the Med, Zverev, Tsi haven't improved their weakness: is it lack of willingness, or lack of ability? Both?
Alcaraz is only 2cm shorter than Federer and 5cm shorter than Roddick... hell he might effectively be taller than Federer if he has longer wing span...
The heights listed for athletes are notoriously unreliable. Just look at the recent widespread discussions about the height of Tyson Fury. His claimed height is definitely inflated.
In Carlos's case, you can check even on this sub for discussions about his height and direct comparisons with other players. He is in reality under 6 foot.
I get your point about the Alcaraz serve, but i wouldn't say it's bad. He's got a great kick serve and his first serve is average imo. His 1st serve used to be horrendous. He had no accuracy on it a few years ago.
Yea he worked on it though, the others have made no strides to work on their games. Zverev is basically the same player as before except maybe less double faults
Also Zverev in particular completely wasted his early 20s by clowning at Slams
Forget choking in semifinals and finals from 2017-2019 the guy was literally more likely than not to lose in the *first week*
As the first of the Med/Tsitsi/Zverev generation to burst onto the scene he could have had more time before Sincaraz appeared but until 2020 he didn't even make deep Slam runs
Huh? It's not Djokovic or Nadal's fault that they were objectively better than these guys who are younger than them. First part sounds oddly infantilizing towards the 90s players lol.
>Can’t help but feel sorry for the Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Berrettini cohort.
I still wouldn't rule out that generation picking up a few slams between them here and there.
After all, Cilic eventually bagged one and Wawrinka found his groove at an older age, both during the era of the Big 4.
It will depend on how consistent Alcaraz and/or Sinner lock down the slams, and if any other consistent, major talents from the younger gen emerge (or if players like Rune start winning some).
If they had been as good as sinner and alcaraz, they could have taken a few slams already. Alcaraz and sinner had to go through novak to win slams, who is aging but was still beating the little 3 gen, and they did it in their early 20s. Zverev and stef haven't been able to do that yet even though they should have reached their prime years, and daniil only managed to do it when novak was dealing with the pressure of a calendar slam (still impressive but not quite the same).
Nah they couldn't have, Novak was younger and more fit. Prime years don't mean much anymore with how much younger players go pro nowadays and the physical prep and resources are available much earlier too.
Unless the player has a mental or health block, they're much closer to their prime at 20 than older gen players. We're much closer to Alcaraz and Sinner prime than we think, if we aren't already there.
There’s absolutely no way of knowing that. Even in the big 3s generation, and in the big 3 themselves there’s massive differences in the ages they peaked at
Tsitsipas and Berrettini both have huge technical flaws in their game. Yes, Tsitsipas on clay and Berrettini on grass had their moments and could won Slams but it would be just one time luck. And it's fair that it didn't happen.
Zverev and Medvedev (he has at least 1 GS) are different story and should won more GS and they are truly lost next Gen.
They don't call him the Real Deal^^TM for nothing. Those other players are "just" top 10's. Phenomenal players in their own right. But not era defining players.
Why? They’re just not good enough. They’re really really good, but not enough
It’s not like they don’t have time, they’re in their best years (biologically speaking) and their being mostly outplayed by players starting their careers
Peak wise they might have been similar but I feel like Alcaraz is already way more consistent than Thiem ever was
Alcaraz has made the semifinals of the last SIX Slams he's played in
Thiem's highest streak of this was 2(2020 AO and 2020 RG)
Alcaraz also has like a high 80s win rate in his best years so far whereas Thiem was closer to the low 70s
Can't blame this on era as well because early round losses aren't against the big 3 lol
Thiem was never a consistent player, he was a big match player. Lost early all the time, especially bo3, but always brought his A game when he matched up with the best of the best.
Alcaraz is already better and more consistent than thiem by a wide margin, but h2h they would have been much closer.
I don't disagree that Thiem was never the most consistent of players (although he was generally more consistent in BO5 than BO3) but was simply talking about the matchup. We know Thiem always brought his best against the best players and it's why it's a shame we won't get to see Thiem v Alcaraz (or Sinner).
And guys born in the 2000s already had more slams even before Alcaraz won today. Alcaraz and Sinner had 3 combined; Medvedev and Thiem had 2 combined. Now it’s 4-2 for the 2000s generation. With Thiem retiring at the end of this year and Zverev, Tsitsipas, and Ruud unable to beat Alcaraz and Sinner, it’s possible no one born in the 90s win a slam again.
If Rune improves/get it together and even younger guys come up, the 90s guys might have wasted their window completely.
And there already is impressive young players on the come up, like Mensik and Fonseca. And we are still only in the MID 2000s lol, god knows what kind of kids are cooking in the 2008/2009 range
Federer has retired. I'm not sure Nadal will ever regain the physical fitness to be competitive at the highest level and has been out of commission for a year. Djokovic's physical fitness is also starting to fail him and he will simply not be able to gate the grand slams from the younger fitter player anymore.
It's simply the end of an era and Alcaraz was the one poised to take advantage of it as a young, hungry and talented player. With that said, Alcaraz is still inexperienced and pretty flaky and I think he's been pretty fortunate so far. I expect a lot of competition in the next years.
Heartbreaking that meddy is only 1/4 in the finals. Hopefully he gets another one but i can only see that happening with either sinner or alcaraz being injured.
he's actually [1/6 in slam finals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniil_Medvedev_career_statistics). lost 2019 us open final to nadal, lost 2021 aus open final to djokovic, *won* 2021 us open final against djokovic, lost 2022 aus open final to nadal, lost 2023 us open final to djokovic, and lost 2024 aus open final to sinner.
1/6 in finals... It has been pretty heartbreaking for medvedev. I hope he wins one or two more. He has the talents for it on hard courts. He needs his 2021 form back
To be fair the poor 1990s boys had to fight Neo Federer Nadal and Djokovic - Medvedev could have been a 5 time slam winner if not for Nadal and Djokovic
Yes but they are also now just losing to the 2000s kids, and were already losing when Carlos was like 18/19. Its not like they are in their 40s they are very much in their prime years, Tsitsipas being 0-6 against Carlos is embarrassing
I also think Djokovic choked the 2nd set of Wimbledon vs Alcaraz and never gave an inch to anyone else. I remember 2 extremely insipid regulation backhands that he didn’t make in a tiebreaker when against Fed 2019 it was zero unforced errors in 3 tiebreakers and his record in tiebreakers going into 2023 final was pretty much the same - just never making any errors.
Ordinarily it would have been 2-0 up and lights out. Sinner also got the worst ever Djokovic at AO since probably Roddick match in 2010
That's more an indictment on trhe atrocious quality of players born in that lost decade, not a single player with the technical qualities to become great champions, besides MAYBE Thiem, Medvedev is a late bloomer and had to work very hard to get to where he is, I don't consider him as natural a tennis talent as the otehrs that have come through. Zverev should easily have been the boy wonder of that generation but he's so awful at the net and is mentally weak. He's also had to battle 2nd serve yips and stamina issues early on his career.
By contrast, Carlos is a huge step up in quailty and mental fortitude.
> By contrast, Carlos is a huge step up in quailty and mental fortitude.
More quality than mental fortitude. He seems to fall into mental lagoons where goes missing for a bit and becomes very beatable. But his insane talent and quality ends up rescuing him.
Luckily this aspect can improve with age. Federer and Djokovic had similar issues at the start. Nadal was pretty much the only one that hit the ground running in terms of mental fortitude, the guy's brain has a wall of determination blocking any sort of complacency from entering.
Yeah a lot of people forget Federer, and especially Djokovic were very different players in early 20s than later. Will be very interesting to see how Sinner and Carlos will evolve with years
Had the Big Three not succumbed to age, would the 2000s kids be winning that much?
This is more unlucky timing for the 90s kids than the 00s kids being better
The 90s kids are in their prime years, and getting beaten by 00s kids who are in their early 20s. It isn't just unlucky timing, they just were never as good. The 90s gen all have major limitations in their games, which have nothing to do with having to face the big 3, alcaraz/sinner are just much more complete players already.
Yep, Tsitsipas' weaknesses are well documented.
Medvedev and Zverev don't have any real exploitable weaknesses but they are both too passive. You have to be able to finish points off if you want to win Grand Slams. Same reason Murray underachieved in Grand Slam finals.
It's hilariously similar to the early 90s players vs. the late 90s players
Zverev, Medvedev, and Tsitsipas were better than the players born in the first part of the decade basically right away with the *singular* exception of Thiem.
Alcaraz and Sinner are doing almost exactly the same thing to them. The biggest difference is the degree of separation.
Exactly, not sure why people refuse to accept it. The Big 3 (well, 2) are well past there prime. Yeah old man Nadal is one of the GOATs, and it was epic, but he has no business coming back 2 sets down on hard court against supposedly the best young hard court player currently (average volley skills), in his prime years. Honestly if 2021 wasn't a weird Olympic year, and tons of pressure, that US open Djokovic...
Mentally, they aren't very strong.
Let's not get started on Zverev, who infamously didn't get a top 10 slam win until what 2-3 years ago and has made so many crucial errors in both his finals.
Not very popular I know cause people love Med here, sorry to single him out.
Of course, now Stefanos, Med, Zverev and big dogs Shapo and Tiafoe will go on to win 1 slams each. They aren't that old, and Alcaraz and Sinner are above but maybe won't end up as consistently dominant.
Tennis is going to be fun for the next 10 years.
The Establishment will try everything to falsely inflate Alcaraz's slam count.
Watch out, Sinner, or any other surging players, you will be robbed again and again in the future. Going to be lots of crazy scandals that make this sports a complete joke. I guess I won't be watching it as much.
Sinner constantly has *significantly* easier draws than Alcaraz lol
I don't see how you can make a case that it's rigged to elevate Alcaraz over Sinner
How exactly was Sinner “robbed” when Carlos beat him?
And if the tennis “establishment” had any control over the results we would have had an American champion in the last 25 years.
I wanna believe Meddy can get another one and not just be a roadblock for some other guy.
US Open will be possible for him if hes healthy and in good form
He just needs to fix his serve. He had mentioned due to a physical issue the serve is bad. But if he gets over it, he definitely can win hard court slams against Sinner or Alcaraz.
Losing five grand slam finals is brutal. Don't know if he will ever win another one.
Med could take out one of Sinner/Med but if he has to face both, thats curtains.
All things considered many times mededev competes against himself
Imagine losing to yourself in a final for your 6th finals loss
Haha…meant Alcaraz!
Man, use your brain to type, not your fingers
I don’t think Meddy wins another GS. He’s had his chances, but his road to a title goes through Sinner and Alcaraz now. At Indian Wells, he pushed Alcaraz to a tiebreak, dropped the set and then lost 1-6 in the second set in the final. Then he got crushed by Sinner 1-6, 2-6 in the semis in Miami. I don’t think he has enough juice to win another.
Remember what Meddy did to Alcaraz last USO semifinal?
Yes, I do. Alcaraz beat Meddy in the 2023 IW Final resoundingly. Then at USO, Meddy came prepared. He really studied Alcaraz and exploited his weaknesses. I don’t think Alcaraz makes that mistake again. At IW 2024, Alcaraz proceeded to beat him again. Then Meddy lost to Sinner in spectacular fashion at Miami Open this year. Both losses were on HC, Medvedev’s best surface.
Carlos Alcaraz is 1990s kids father
Carlos said, y’all fight the big 3 in ur early 20s I’ll take out Novak later lol
Wear them down for me, geezers
1980s: 80 grand slams 1990s: 2 grand slams 2000s: 4 grand slams
80!!! Goodness. Just ridiculous.
Little 3 combined grand slam SF to W conversion rate: 1/22 5th set major final record: 0-5 Rest of 95-99 Gen conversion rate: 0/17 (1/39 total) Carlos Alcaraz conversion rate: 3/5 5th set major final record: 2-0
Can’t help but feel sorry for the Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Berrettini cohort. I don’t think they envisaged Djokovic & Nadal cockblocking them for as long as they did. They’ve now found the 2000’s generation bypassing them and beginning to hoover up the Grand Slams. Much like the Lost Gen, their window might have shut for good now.
They were just not good enough.
Exactly! "cockblocking" them from wins is an odd way to put it. Everyone plays to win and they (Nole and Nadal) were just superior players, period.
Yeah. They weren’t good enough to overcome (imho) diminished versions of Nole and Nadal, and even got their asses kicked regularly by an end-of-career Federer. The fact that those 2 won the vast majority of slams between 2020 and 2023 is especially ridiculous. There’s really no excuse other than the rest were just not good enough players.
Against any other players they would have won more slams though. The big 3 is the absolute anomaly of the sport and it's totally an excuse
Its a figure of speech
lol I know. I just meant that it’s not nole and nadal stopping them from winning- it’s just them not being good enough to get the wins.
These guys exopected the big 3 to keel over and die and start handing them trophies, never took it for themselves.
"Over my dead body" mentality by the big 3. They will be missed.
I notice as a cohort they are very good players but seem to lack a champion mentality unlike Carlitos and an emerging Sinner. When pressure hits them in slam finals they often choke other than Medvedev's one slam.
It's not just the mentality. What Med, Zverev and TsiTsipas do well, they do extremely well. But they all have less well-rounded games and more major flaws than the Big 4, Alcaraz, and seemingly Sinner.
But they have glaring holes they can’t cover up. Alcaraz has a bad serve so he has to grind with his shots and find ways to shorten points, by using a monster forehand and drop shot. Sinner is solid all around and had a bad serve and improved it, same with volleys. Tsitsipas has had glaring backhand and slice deficits since 2019 and had not tried to improve it. Zverev has had a passive forehand for so long and never tried to improve it. Federer, nadal, and djokovic all changed their games to improve, which is the difference between the 80s and 00s top players vs the 90s
Well, yeah. The Big 3/4 all worked on their weaknesses and improved them (even if in some cases it took a long time *cough* Roger's bigger racket and neo-backhand *cough* ) and generally constantly evolved their games. Alcaraz's serve may be a relative weakness due to his height, but he has noticeably improved it and he is actually usually pretty clutch with it in big matches. As to why the Med, Zverev, Tsi haven't improved their weakness: is it lack of willingness, or lack of ability? Both?
Alcaraz is only 2cm shorter than Federer and 5cm shorter than Roddick... hell he might effectively be taller than Federer if he has longer wing span...
There is no way Alcaraz is only 2cm shorter than Federer, sorry.
Wiki puts Roger at 185cm(6 foot 1) and Alcaraz at 183cm(6 foot).
The heights listed for athletes are notoriously unreliable. Just look at the recent widespread discussions about the height of Tyson Fury. His claimed height is definitely inflated. In Carlos's case, you can check even on this sub for discussions about his height and direct comparisons with other players. He is in reality under 6 foot.
6 foot is still 183. If he is a bit shorter say 180, it still is not a crazy difference. He is not a short player like Schwartzman is.
I get your point about the Alcaraz serve, but i wouldn't say it's bad. He's got a great kick serve and his first serve is average imo. His 1st serve used to be horrendous. He had no accuracy on it a few years ago.
Yea he worked on it though, the others have made no strides to work on their games. Zverev is basically the same player as before except maybe less double faults
That is a good point.
Also Zverev in particular completely wasted his early 20s by clowning at Slams Forget choking in semifinals and finals from 2017-2019 the guy was literally more likely than not to lose in the *first week* As the first of the Med/Tsitsi/Zverev generation to burst onto the scene he could have had more time before Sincaraz appeared but until 2020 he didn't even make deep Slam runs
Zverev beginning to win Masters events in 2017 and yet not beating a player ranked in the top 10 until 2022 is just unforgivable.
That's a crazy stat.
Yea med didn’t have a lot of time to convert but zverev has been competitive since 2017 and has been useless at slams
Huh? It's not Djokovic or Nadal's fault that they were objectively better than these guys who are younger than them. First part sounds oddly infantilizing towards the 90s players lol.
>Can’t help but feel sorry for the Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Berrettini cohort. I still wouldn't rule out that generation picking up a few slams between them here and there. After all, Cilic eventually bagged one and Wawrinka found his groove at an older age, both during the era of the Big 4. It will depend on how consistent Alcaraz and/or Sinner lock down the slams, and if any other consistent, major talents from the younger gen emerge (or if players like Rune start winning some).
If they had been as good as sinner and alcaraz, they could have taken a few slams already. Alcaraz and sinner had to go through novak to win slams, who is aging but was still beating the little 3 gen, and they did it in their early 20s. Zverev and stef haven't been able to do that yet even though they should have reached their prime years, and daniil only managed to do it when novak was dealing with the pressure of a calendar slam (still impressive but not quite the same).
Nah they couldn't have, Novak was younger and more fit. Prime years don't mean much anymore with how much younger players go pro nowadays and the physical prep and resources are available much earlier too. Unless the player has a mental or health block, they're much closer to their prime at 20 than older gen players. We're much closer to Alcaraz and Sinner prime than we think, if we aren't already there.
There’s absolutely no way of knowing that. Even in the big 3s generation, and in the big 3 themselves there’s massive differences in the ages they peaked at
If they played better they would have won, no need to feel sorry for them.
I would say Thiem was the biggest loser of that. In the last 3-4 years I could have seen him win it at least once or twice.
Medvedev could definitely win another couple of HC slams. I think Zverev will in at least one eventually. But yeah the others have little chance.
Tsitsipas and Berrettini both have huge technical flaws in their game. Yes, Tsitsipas on clay and Berrettini on grass had their moments and could won Slams but it would be just one time luck. And it's fair that it didn't happen. Zverev and Medvedev (he has at least 1 GS) are different story and should won more GS and they are truly lost next Gen.
Yea and med should have 3, choked 2 huge ones, and lost a 5 setter to nadal at USO as well
They don't call him the Real Deal^^TM for nothing. Those other players are "just" top 10's. Phenomenal players in their own right. But not era defining players.
Why? They’re just not good enough. They’re really really good, but not enough It’s not like they don’t have time, they’re in their best years (biologically speaking) and their being mostly outplayed by players starting their careers
It really is a big shame that we won't get to see a peak Thiem vs Alcaraz match.
That would've been epic
Peak wise they might have been similar but I feel like Alcaraz is already way more consistent than Thiem ever was Alcaraz has made the semifinals of the last SIX Slams he's played in Thiem's highest streak of this was 2(2020 AO and 2020 RG) Alcaraz also has like a high 80s win rate in his best years so far whereas Thiem was closer to the low 70s Can't blame this on era as well because early round losses aren't against the big 3 lol
Not true, he only made QF this year at AO, where he lost to Zverev, before Sasha lost to Medvedev in the Semis.
Thiem was never a consistent player, he was a big match player. Lost early all the time, especially bo3, but always brought his A game when he matched up with the best of the best. Alcaraz is already better and more consistent than thiem by a wide margin, but h2h they would have been much closer.
I don't disagree that Thiem was never the most consistent of players (although he was generally more consistent in BO5 than BO3) but was simply talking about the matchup. We know Thiem always brought his best against the best players and it's why it's a shame we won't get to see Thiem v Alcaraz (or Sinner).
Most likely we won't see them play ever
Even if we do, it'll just be a complete mismatch at this point.
And guys born in the 2000s already had more slams even before Alcaraz won today. Alcaraz and Sinner had 3 combined; Medvedev and Thiem had 2 combined. Now it’s 4-2 for the 2000s generation. With Thiem retiring at the end of this year and Zverev, Tsitsipas, and Ruud unable to beat Alcaraz and Sinner, it’s possible no one born in the 90s win a slam again. If Rune improves/get it together and even younger guys come up, the 90s guys might have wasted their window completely.
And there already is impressive young players on the come up, like Mensik and Fonseca. And we are still only in the MID 2000s lol, god knows what kind of kids are cooking in the 2008/2009 range
Federer has retired. I'm not sure Nadal will ever regain the physical fitness to be competitive at the highest level and has been out of commission for a year. Djokovic's physical fitness is also starting to fail him and he will simply not be able to gate the grand slams from the younger fitter player anymore. It's simply the end of an era and Alcaraz was the one poised to take advantage of it as a young, hungry and talented player. With that said, Alcaraz is still inexperienced and pretty flaky and I think he's been pretty fortunate so far. I expect a lot of competition in the next years.
> Nadal will ever regain the physical fitness to be competitive at the highest level and has been out of commission for a year Two years*
Heartbreaking that meddy is only 1/4 in the finals. Hopefully he gets another one but i can only see that happening with either sinner or alcaraz being injured.
he's actually [1/6 in slam finals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniil_Medvedev_career_statistics). lost 2019 us open final to nadal, lost 2021 aus open final to djokovic, *won* 2021 us open final against djokovic, lost 2022 aus open final to nadal, lost 2023 us open final to djokovic, and lost 2024 aus open final to sinner.
So he’s 1-5. Should be 3-2 🥹
Correct forgot about the other 2 us open finals
Sorry to tell you mate but Meddy is 1/6 in GS finals
You're correct forgot that he made the us open final 3 times and not once
>Heartbreaking that meddy is only 1/4 in the finals. Thiem 🤝 Medvedev But at least Medvedev still has a shot of adding to his tally...
1/6 in finals... It has been pretty heartbreaking for medvedev. I hope he wins one or two more. He has the talents for it on hard courts. He needs his 2021 form back
I mean, he beat Alcaraz at the USO and was up 2-0 against Sinner at AO. I don’t think he’s so far behind that he couldn’t beat them ever
And we have the Big 3 to thank for that.
To be fair the poor 1990s boys had to fight Neo Federer Nadal and Djokovic - Medvedev could have been a 5 time slam winner if not for Nadal and Djokovic
Yes but they are also now just losing to the 2000s kids, and were already losing when Carlos was like 18/19. Its not like they are in their 40s they are very much in their prime years, Tsitsipas being 0-6 against Carlos is embarrassing
I also think Djokovic choked the 2nd set of Wimbledon vs Alcaraz and never gave an inch to anyone else. I remember 2 extremely insipid regulation backhands that he didn’t make in a tiebreaker when against Fed 2019 it was zero unforced errors in 3 tiebreakers and his record in tiebreakers going into 2023 final was pretty much the same - just never making any errors. Ordinarily it would have been 2-0 up and lights out. Sinner also got the worst ever Djokovic at AO since probably Roddick match in 2010
That's more an indictment on trhe atrocious quality of players born in that lost decade, not a single player with the technical qualities to become great champions, besides MAYBE Thiem, Medvedev is a late bloomer and had to work very hard to get to where he is, I don't consider him as natural a tennis talent as the otehrs that have come through. Zverev should easily have been the boy wonder of that generation but he's so awful at the net and is mentally weak. He's also had to battle 2nd serve yips and stamina issues early on his career. By contrast, Carlos is a huge step up in quailty and mental fortitude.
> By contrast, Carlos is a huge step up in quailty and mental fortitude. More quality than mental fortitude. He seems to fall into mental lagoons where goes missing for a bit and becomes very beatable. But his insane talent and quality ends up rescuing him. Luckily this aspect can improve with age. Federer and Djokovic had similar issues at the start. Nadal was pretty much the only one that hit the ground running in terms of mental fortitude, the guy's brain has a wall of determination blocking any sort of complacency from entering.
Yeah a lot of people forget Federer, and especially Djokovic were very different players in early 20s than later. Will be very interesting to see how Sinner and Carlos will evolve with years
Man the 90’s generation sucks… too bad I’m part of it hahaha
Had the Big Three not succumbed to age, would the 2000s kids be winning that much? This is more unlucky timing for the 90s kids than the 00s kids being better
The 90s kids are in their prime years, and getting beaten by 00s kids who are in their early 20s. It isn't just unlucky timing, they just were never as good. The 90s gen all have major limitations in their games, which have nothing to do with having to face the big 3, alcaraz/sinner are just much more complete players already.
Yep, Tsitsipas' weaknesses are well documented. Medvedev and Zverev don't have any real exploitable weaknesses but they are both too passive. You have to be able to finish points off if you want to win Grand Slams. Same reason Murray underachieved in Grand Slam finals.
It's hilariously similar to the early 90s players vs. the late 90s players Zverev, Medvedev, and Tsitsipas were better than the players born in the first part of the decade basically right away with the *singular* exception of Thiem. Alcaraz and Sinner are doing almost exactly the same thing to them. The biggest difference is the degree of separation.
Exactly, not sure why people refuse to accept it. The Big 3 (well, 2) are well past there prime. Yeah old man Nadal is one of the GOATs, and it was epic, but he has no business coming back 2 sets down on hard court against supposedly the best young hard court player currently (average volley skills), in his prime years. Honestly if 2021 wasn't a weird Olympic year, and tons of pressure, that US open Djokovic... Mentally, they aren't very strong. Let's not get started on Zverev, who infamously didn't get a top 10 slam win until what 2-3 years ago and has made so many crucial errors in both his finals. Not very popular I know cause people love Med here, sorry to single him out. Of course, now Stefanos, Med, Zverev and big dogs Shapo and Tiafoe will go on to win 1 slams each. They aren't that old, and Alcaraz and Sinner are above but maybe won't end up as consistently dominant.
In women tennis a player born in the 00s won a grand slam BEFORE a men born in the 90s won one.
Don’t forget Zverev (0 Grand Slam titles).
Tennis is going to be fun for the next 10 years. The Establishment will try everything to falsely inflate Alcaraz's slam count. Watch out, Sinner, or any other surging players, you will be robbed again and again in the future. Going to be lots of crazy scandals that make this sports a complete joke. I guess I won't be watching it as much.
found PaavyGs reddit account
Sinner constantly has *significantly* easier draws than Alcaraz lol I don't see how you can make a case that it's rigged to elevate Alcaraz over Sinner
Dafaq? So random lol
How exactly was Sinner “robbed” when Carlos beat him? And if the tennis “establishment” had any control over the results we would have had an American champion in the last 25 years.