Whenever one tries to climb out and make it to the absolute top, others pull them down. Take this week as an example. Felix had a good chance of FINALLY winning his first title. He only needed to beat Shapo, whom he beat the last two times and had a leading H2H over, and then Tommy Paul who was ranked outside the top 50. But then Shapo decides to play a good match, hits winners left and right, and takes that chance away from his good ol' pal and countryman. Well, okay, then at least we can let Shapo carry the "Next-gen" flag and see him defend a title. We saw a glimpse of what Shapo can do at Wimbledon this year. Maybe defending a hard court title (would that make him better than Nadal on HC?) will light a spark that will give him more consistency into the coming year. But NOOO, now Tommy Paul (literally who?) decides to have a break-out tournament and win his first title. Tommy, whom you can hardly call a next-genner anymore, has basically been a nobody since his career started. He played great this tournament, you know he has potential, he seems like a cool guy, and it's great that he won a title, but COME ON! We've got too many of these sub-top, B-listed, kinda-heard-about-him, run off the mill, offensive baseliners who can play great on a given day but actually rarely do so. What we do need is someone actually breaking out of this crab-bucket for the long term so they learn how to stay in the top 10 and play consistently well, even against the Big 3.
As of now, only Medvedev and (earlier) Thiem have been able to climb out of the bucket. Thiem is injured, and Medvedev.. will he stay there or will he make room for others as soon as they recover from his injuries? It's great that the youngsters are playing better and pushing the oldies out of the way, but they're forgetting the most important oldies: the Big 3. I fear that when they all return at full strength, they'll just return to their usual spots with the message "Thanks for keeping our seats warm, guys. Now get out of here." The Next-Gen is great at beating the crap out of each other, but those battles are always followed by them dropping the ball against the big boys. You'll end up with a 40 yo Fedalovic at numbers 1, 2, and 3, with the spots from 4 to 50 filled up by a melange of "Next-gen" and "Lost-gen".
As of now, only Medvedev and (earlier) Thiem have been able to climb out of the bucket. Thiem is injured, and Medvedev.. will he stay there or will he make room for others as soon as they recover from his injuries? It's great that the youngsters are playing better and pushing the oldies out of the way, but they're forgetting the most important oldies: the Big 3. I fear that when they all return at full strength, they'll just return to their usual spots with the message "Thanks for keeping our seats warm, guys. Now get out of here." The Next-Gen is great at beating the crap out of each other, but those battles are always followed by them dropping the ball against the big boys. You'll end up with a 40 yo Fedalovic at numbers 1, 2, and 3, with the spots from 4 to 50 filled up by a melange of "Next-gen" and "Lost-gen".
