#it's just not possible to consistently beat the big 3 i guess they're aliens

[zingaplanet]

It's fascinating to think of the future of tennis as a sport after this era is officially over (AKA all rafa, novak and andy finally retired for good). With the constant that is human progression, we always knew that sports are on the way up, getting faster, more competitive, more physically demanding and generally better, just look at the difference between olympics 50 years ago and now. But what if there is a limit with game-format restricted sports? Maybe there is a certain point where there is only so much racket development or match technology improvement we can make without transforming the sport into a whole different game entirely. Excluding physical human evolution itself, which might take a couple decades, the sport might have reached its peak in its most competitive form, and there is really no way of beating or even yet repeating this jackpot of golden era.

Sadly, if we're being honest the truest rivals of the big 3 in their dominance have only been each other and themselves. We've had a next gen, a next next gen, and a whole batch of new promising future players (we've even invented a tournament so they can compete AMONGST THEMSELVES only) but they never really did break the full dominance of these 30-40 year old veterans consistently, except for instances when they themselves are injured (e.g., Nadal pulling out of Wimbledon this year).

Tennis analysts have been criticised for being too judgmental, but they've also witnessed 20 something Federer taking the crown directly from Agassi-Sampras AND staying for the next 20 years at the top, as well as 17 year old Nadal beating the world number one consistently in his prime, and Djokovic doing the impossible and breaking into the Federer-Nadal duopoly.

The biggest worry is of course to have a whole generation of new players on the tour after the rest of the big 3 and their peers (Wawrinka, Andy, etc) retired who've never actually beaten (or pull the rug from under them so to say) the champions of the previous era consistently. This will mean that the sports have not transitioned to the better but has solely transitioned to the next era due to natural decline. Sadly, this seems more and more likely given that Nadal and Djokovic are well past their primes at this point and ARE STILL winning 2 slams in their late 30s, which means the opportunity to knock them off their crowns are pretty much expired as they're likely to retire on a high anyway.

The likeliest and most dangerous scenario is that we truly are living in a one-of-a-kind era, where the best tennis players that will ever be happened to be playing all at the same time. If that is so, it's time for us to realise the importance of enjoying the ride for as long as we got left. As it'll ever be this thrilling, this competitive, this mindboggling once, and we have the front row seats at the theatre of the gods.