It's an excuse and you know it. Every significant player in history has shown signs of greatness early on and by early on I don't mean freaking 23. By 23 they were already established players. Take anyone who won 5+ Slams or Safin, Hewitt or even someone like freaking Cilic. The one and only exception could be Wawrinka but it just confirms the rule.
They aren't done winning Slams because even while in heavy decline they can still play well enough to easily dismantle the "next gen champions" who are currently 19-22. Hell, they don't even need to because they keep losing before meeting them. Why do you think anyone who has watched tennis for 10+ years keeps picking the top 3/4 to scoop up all the Slams in annual Slam predictions? Because who the hell is going to beat them other than themselves? It's October and I'm 90% sure that a nearly 32-year old Djokovic is going to win the AO. Then you got the FO and a 33-year old Nadal winning the FO for a 30th time and if not who's going to stop him? Djokovic. Wimbledon - Federer at 38 remains one of the favorites and the only players who matter on grass (now that Murray is probably done) is the big 3 and Del Potro and if you go further it's someone like Cilic or Anderson.
If they were so great they would've broken the domination by now given that all the active Slam champions are in their 30s and way past their primes. They. Are. Not. Good. Enough.
I agree with all of this. Young players will start winning more once Nadal/Djokovic are really poor.
That is so wrong, the expectations are probably at an all-time low now. We have waited 10 years for new players who could fill in the void. It's almost 2019 and there hasn't been a single player born in the 90s who has won a Slam.
They will all play against each other so you'll get the illusion that they are great. I have followed this sport very closely for over a decade and can recognize a great player when I see one. I had this feeling about Djokovic and Murray back in 2006 when they were kids. I had this feeling about Del Potro in 2008 when he was still a teen. From today's players only Zverev meets the criteria (I thought Kyrgios did too but I've given up on this lunatic). Tiafoe, Khachanov, Medvedev are all tier 3 players in my eyes. The one and only advantage they have over the true champions is time. A genetic occurrence. Put them in 2012 and they don't even make the top 20.
WHAT? We've all been waiting for a young player to make a breakthrough YEARS AGO. I remember when I first saw Nishikori at the US Open back in 2008. I remember when there was hype around Raonic when he beat Youzhny at the 2011 AO. I remember the endless hype about Dimitrov (that still hasn't totally faded until this day). You just weren't here. All of us really believed, I myself had hopes just like everyone for years. There is a limit for patience, though and now I honestly believe that all the young players care more about social media than putting their heart out on the court. Maybe this isn't even their fault, it's the times we live in. I changed my mind about Thiem a little bit after I saw him battle until the bitter end against Nadal at the US Open but the guy is already 25 years old.
Preach it bro. All hype but nothing to show for it. Sums up this generation.
Like the good old-fashioned mum who believes that her son will have a beatiful wife, 2 intelligent children, a mansion with a swimming pool, a well paid job etc. and still hasn't dropped this dream when he's 37.
If this is your criteria then cherish all the players who are ranked 50-100 and make a good living as well.Rest assured, you will be jumping on that bandwagon in no time when that takes place.
At least these guys are out there trying to do something as opposed to sitting around at home for 4 days for no reason. Oouch.
Or maybe not.
I'm not even going to compare Bendy, Nishi, or Ferrer because they just don't have remotely similar accomplishments at the same age.
If they suck at 21 they aren't going to magically start racking up Slams at 26. Stop fooling yourself. They aren't knocking on the door and losing to the big 3. They are barely making the 2nd or 3rd rounds.
This is just utter nonsense when you know its LostGen that has failed miserably and the weak 2nd tier that fought the big 4 (Berdych/Ferrer). You are blaming players who just turned 21 this year for not winning a bunch of slams which is just crazy.
The bandwagon has already lost all its wheels. None of the youngsters excite me.Rest assured, you will be jumping on that bandwagon in no time when that takes place.
At least these guys are out there trying to do something as opposed to sitting around at home for 4 days for no reason. Oouch.
Or maybe not.
Hell no. If someone who is supposed to be a 5-6 Slam champion in the making can't even break the top 20 at the age of 20/21 in this mug era then I'm not even gonna waste my time talking about him as a future champion. A future champion of what? Other mugs?
Yes, I never joke.
Have you looked at the Raonic Dimitrough ranking trajectory? Its pretty much over for them. Nishikori has fought back to top 10, but not legit earning a WTF spot, but he can't even beat Medvedev at a tournament he's won twice before (Tokyo). Dimitrough is 20th in the ATP race with Raonic at 15 this year. Coric, Tsitsipas, and even Medvedev have passed them by. All of these lostgen players are a notch below the lackluster likes of Berdy/Ferrer. They've had some passable stats for like one year each, but even a return to that level probably not enough to win a slam (except in Dimitrov's case who does have the tools and talent.) I suppose we can't rule out Dimitrov pulling a Wawrinka, but he's not displayed the mentality of a champion not the trajectory as he was a quite late bloomer himself.
Nadal is still gonna be winning RG in 2021 and Djokovic might even sneak a CYGS in the next couple of years.
Glad to see you hold LostGen in such high esteem.
If Nadal is injured for RG, yes for 2019. I think the RG window closes for Nole after 2019.
Dimitrov is this era's Ljubicic.
I don't see a reason why Dimitrov/Raonic/Nishikori at the age of 30/31 can't beat a 24/25 year old Khachanov, Tiafoe or Medvedev in a Slam. They have all had good and bad years and not a lot of consistency in their career. You're basically saying that they are all done which is crazy given their still relatively young age (especially for today's standards).
This is all cherry picking. Nishikori, Raonic and Dimitrov have all underperformed recently. Nishi had some really good performances but not even close to his peak performances of 2013-2016.
I'm not gonna make any predictions because I have no clue how the tour is going to look like 3-5 years from now (probably Federer, Nadal, Djokovic in the top 3 though) nor will I care about a Raonic-Tiafoe Slam final or something.
Spoken like a true Bendy homer. What on earth are you talking about? You're worse than @tennisaddict .
You're sitting here propping up a bunch of pigeons like Raonic, Nishikori, Berdych, Ferrer, Dimitrov, and lets just add Roddick. A player like Tsitsipas is leagues better than Dimitrov at the same age, its just not even close.
What....Spoken like a true Bendy homer. What on earth are you talking about? You're worse than @tennisaddict .
I'll give you that even though Tsitsipas hasn't really done a lot outside of one tournament (2018 Canada).
Still feel like Raonic could have a chance at Wimbledon. Nishikori won't stay healthy long enough and Dimitrov may be lost forever. Thiem gives me hope, but he can't do it alone. It's up to Zverev, Coric, Tsits etc. to step up. Cilic is a threat once in a while. Delpo not much different than Kei in the injury department.Glad to see you hold LostGen in such high esteem.
Berdych and Ferrer are solid enough, Roddick is above them all though. Raonic and Nishikori are kind of mugs though. I think Berdych gets a bad backlash for his last two years as a top player where he folded to the Big 4 without a fight (despite previously giving trouble to both Federer and Murray in and outside of majors). But it's because he was physically declining. It's obvious, watch him against Rafa at the 2012 Australian Open then watch him at the 2017 edition.Spoken like a true Bendy homer. What on earth are you talking about? You're worse than @tennisaddict .
Never happen. Might win 3.
Is that Post Malone in your avi? He’s such a cool dude.
#3 in 2006 for Ljuby. Dimitrov with much more talent, but just too mentally fragile and I can't get over how his backhand fell apart on grass at Queens in 2017 after the great play around Auz earlier in the year. He pulled out WTF last year and has fallen a lot this year. 20th with really no explanation for the drop other than decline.
It's BS to let them vulture the next two years of slams. Talk about future weak era arguements. 2003-07 will be forgotten.
He's just not that good. I wouldn't even insult Nalbandian by putting them in the same sentence anymore, thus he is Ljubicic of this era.
My ONLY hope is Tsitsipas. He just turned 20 and shows some spark.
Yeah from the call of duty commercial. You seen it?
Kyrgios won't even be as good as Scud, forget about him. Zverev has a chance if he matures. Thiem has a chance if Nadal loses early. Coric has a chance if a major opens up but it's still too early to say with him.
