The End of a Tennis Era

With Novak Djokovic’s loss on Friday night, tennis now belongs to the kids

Friday night, one of the most remarkable streaks in the history of sports ended.

Number of grand slam titles the Big Three (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic) won every year since 2003:

Key: Australian Open (A); French Open (Fr); Wimbledon (W); U.S. Open (US)

• 2003: 1: Federer (W).

• 2004: 3, Federer (A) (W) (US)

• 2005: 3, Federer (W) (US); Nadal (Fr)

• 2006: 4, Federer (A) (W) (US); Nadal (Fr)

• 2007: 4, Federer (A) W) (US); Nadal (Fr)

• 2008: 4, Nadal (Fr) (W); Djokovic (A); Federer (US)

• 2009: 3, Federer (Fr) (W); Nadal (A)

• 2010: 4, Nadal (Fr) (W) (US); Federer (A)

• 2011: 4, Djokovic (A) (W) (US); Nadal (Fr)

• 2012: 3, Djokovic (A); Nadal (Fr); Federer (W)

• 2013: 3, Nadal (Fr) (US); Djokovic (W)

• 2014: 2, Nadal (Fr); Djokovic (W)

• 2015: 3, Djokovic (A) (W) (US)

• 2016: 2, Djokovic (A) (Fr)

• 2017: 4, Federer (A) (W); Nadal (Fr) (US)

• 2018: 4, Djokovic (W) (US); Federer (A); Nadal (Fr)

• 2019: 4, Djokovic (A) (W); Nadal (F) (US)

• 2020: 2, Djokovic (A); Nadal (F)

• 2021: 3, Djokovic (A) (F) (W)

• 2022: 3, Nadal (A) (F); Djokovic (W)

• 2023: 3, Djokovic (A) (F) (US)

That’s 21 years in a row that the Big Three won at least one Grand Slam title. Heck, it’s been 20 years in a row that the Big Three won at least TWO Grand Slam titles. They swept all four slams in eight different years.

The ended Friday night when Novak Djokovic lost to Alexei Popyrin in four sets at the U.S. Open. He played poorly — 14 double faults! — and this was his earliest grand slam exit since his brief 2016-17 lull (and before that, you have go all the way back to 2009).

But the larger point is: This will be the first year that none of the Big Three won a slam since before:

• The iPhone

• Olivia Rodrigo

• Facebook

• Twitterex

• The Office

• The NFL horse collar penalty

• Rory Gilmore left for college

• Joe Mauer’s big-league first at-bat

• Netflix streaming

• Beyonce left Destiny’s Child

• Jackson Holliday

• Mad Men

• LeBron James’ first NBA game

• Taylor Swift released her first album

Djokovic says he will be back. But Friday felt a bit like an ending to an era. (Luke Hales/Getty Imagine)

It’s certainly possible that Djokovic will win another slam before he’s done — he did reach the Wimbledon final and he’s still one of the best players in the world (though he will drop out of the top three for the first time in a long time and could fall as low as sixth after this loss) — but he also might not win another, and either way it’s clear now that time has moved on from the three greatest players of the Open Era.

Federer has been retired for a couple of years now, Nadal’s retirement could happen at the Laver Cup this year (Fed retired at the Laver Cup), and while Djokovic says he will keep going, he will do so at a greatly reduced schedule. Anyway, after finally winning the Olympic gold medal, completing the Golden Slam, it’s not entirely clear what Djoker’s motivation level will be going forward.

Tennis fans will always argue about which of the three is the greatest, but to me that argument is nothing more than a Rorschach Test. If you want Federer to be the greatest, you can absolutely make the argument that he launched this entire era, that he raised the level of men’s tennis so high that Nadal and Djokovic just came along for the ride, that he played the most beautiful tennis of anyone.

If you want Nadal to be the greatest, you can absolutely make the argument that he was utterly unbeatable on clay and on top of that still beat peak Federer on grass and peak Djokovic on the hard courts, that his never-give-up-on-a-ball spirit is at the very essence of tennis excellence, that he blended power and finesse like nobody else.

And if you want Djokovic to be the greatest, you can make all the numeric arguments (most slams, most weeks at No. 1, most years ranked No. 1, only player to win each of the slams three times, only player to win all of the Masters 1000 tournaments — and he won them all twice, etc.), you can talk about how he returned serve like nobody else, you can point out that over 20 years he made himself into the most versatile and perfect player of them all.

There are no wrong answers to this question, in my view. Every now and again in sports, a collection of remarkable and game-changing athletes come along at the same time. Mantle and Mays and Aaron. Koufax and Marichal and Gibson. Russell and Chamberlain. Ali and Frazier and Foreman. Bird and Magic. Chrissie and Martina. Palmer and Nicklaus and Trevino and Player and Watson. Gretzky and Lemieux. Emmitt and Barry. Maddux and Pedro and Unit. Brady and Manning.

And while, yes, we will argue who was greatest because that’s sports, the thing that lasts, I think, is the time, the memories and the ways that our minds were blown when we saw, for the first time, just how well a sport could be played.

We may never again see Roger Federer glide over the grass — as if hydroplaning from one side to the other — and crack an impossible forehand winner down the line, the sort of shot that used to inspire the late David Foster Wallace to make sounds that would cause his spouse to race in from another room to be sure he was OK.

We may never again see Rafael Nadal chase after a ball that is unquestionably and undeniably out of his reach — a ball few of his compatriots would even have bothered chasing — and then not only get there in time but get there in time to hit a savage shot with enough topspin to make the ball buzz like a swarm of bees as it blurs past a helpless and shocked opponent.

And there might not be many chances left to see Novak Djokovic racing from side to side, returning shot after shot that would be a winner against almost anybody else, seemingly never tiring, seemingly incapable of missing, until his opponent finally caves to the inevitable, and Djokovic cups his right hand over his ear and asks the crowd to reenergize him.

This tennis year has very much felt like a goodbye to yesterday, not only with the Big Three, but also the almost-Big-Three Andy Murray has retired now, Dominic Thiem is taking his gorgeous one-handed backhand into retirement, the delightful Diego Schwartzman is retiring, the spellbinding Gael Monfils talks about spending more time with his daughter. Meanwhile, more and more tennis kids take the stage. It’s Carlos Alcaraz’s game now, Jannik Sinner’s game now, Casper Ruud, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, maybe some Americans too like Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul and my personal favorite Frances Tiafoe.

As Rick says in Casablanca, “Well, that’s the way it goes, one in, one out.”

That is the way it goes in sports. And life. Time comes for all.

But we got to see Roger and Rafa and Novak soar for so much longer than any of us could have reasonably hoped. Maybe you liked them all. Maybe you liked two of them. Maybe you liked one and despised the other two. No matter what: It has been wonderful.