If there’s one takeaway from this year’s Wimbledon it’s that we are finally at that uber-tennis moment The Changing of The Guard (™). This idea first took hold at the start of the noughties when a 19-year old Federer demolished then top dog Pete Sampras, rendering his serve and volley instantly out of date. Roll on four years and those who had dominated mens tennis in the preceding decade, particularly Sampras and Agassi, were swept aside by first Federer and then in quick order Nadal Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. Between them these four (actually a Big Five with Stan Wawrinka ,whose ridiculous one-handed backhand won him as many slams as Murray) won all bar 5 of the 40-odd slams in the twenty years to 2003. As a comparison you only need to go back half a dozen years in the golf majors to tot up more different winners, and a similar period in the womens tennis slams.

This year will more likely than not end with not a single slam being won by those who have dominated mens tennis for the past twenty years. Though Thiem, Medvedev, Zverev and Tsisipas have threatened, and won the odd slam, something different » Continue Reading.