The Lost Decade of ATP

[gravemadness]

With Jannik Sinner's victory at the US Open, he now becomes the 5th active male player to be a multi-time GS Winner, behind Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz and Wawrinka.

Djokovic (born 1987) - 24 slams
Nadal (born 1986) - 22 slams
Wawrinka (born 1985) - 3 slams
Alcaraz (born 2003) - 4 slams
Sinner (born 2001) - 2 slams

There's an entire decade of 90s born men's tennis players, without a single multi-time GS winner. The overall numbers are even more shocking.

Players born in 1990-1994: 1 slam, 1 ATP finals, 4(!) Masters
Players born in 1995-1999: 1 slam, 4 ATP finals, 16 Masters

Men's tennis players born in the 90s have now gone 1-18 in GS Finals against players born in other decades.

0-1 vs Murray
0-5 vs Nadal
1-8 vs Djokovic
0-2 vs Alcaraz
0-2 vs Sinner

There's still time for the players born in the latter half of the 90s to improve their record but for players born in the earlier half, it is quite clearly over in terms of winning Big Titles.

I am sure a part of their failure is the fact that they had to face three of the best players in history but there was definitely room for more titles when Federer got his knee injury, Nadal was on the decline and Djokovic's elbow was a big issue and yet... it never seemed to click for the 90s Gen.

 

[ibbi]

90 years after the end of the worlds Lost Generation, tennis had its own. In tennis terms, it was really more like 2 or 3 generations, and it could happen again if these kids now get their act together. Watch out babies of the 2010s.

 

[travlerajm]

With Jannik Sinner's victory at the US Open, he now becomes the 5th active male player to be a multi-time GS Winner, behind Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz and Wawrinka.

Djokovic (born 1987) - 24 slams
Nadal (born 1986) - 22 slams
Wawrinka (born 1985) - 3 slams
Alcaraz (born 2003) - 4 slams
Sinner (born 2001) - 2 slams

There's an entire decade of 90s born men's tennis players, without a single multi-time GS winner. The overall numbers are even more shocking.

Players born in 1990-1994: 1 slam, 1 ATP finals, 4(!) Masters
Players born in 1995-1999: 1 slam, 4 ATP finals, 16 Masters

Men's tennis players born in the 90s have now gone 1-18 in GS Finals against players born in other decades.

0-1 vs Murray
0-5 vs Nadal
1-8 vs Djokovic
0-2 vs Alcaraz
0-2 vs Sinner

There's still time for the players born in the latter half of the 90s to improve their record but for players born in the earlier half, it is quite clearly over in terms of winning Big Titles.

I am sure a part of their failure is the fact that they had to face three of the best players in history but there was definitely room for more titles when Federer got his knee injury, Nadal was on the decline and Djokovic's elbow was a big issue and yet... it never seemed to click for the 90s Gen.

And of that 1-18 in slam finals against players born in other decades, zero wins against players under age 34.

 

[TheGoldenEra1990’s]

well to be fair there’s only a handful of guys in history that would ever compete and hold their own with the peak prime Big 3 and you can probably count them on hand. (Sampras, Borg, Agassi, Lendl, Connors) No shame in being dominated by those 3. We won’t see anything close to them ever again. They are once once every 200 years players. Post prime Big 3 it’s been poor because players should have gotten their share of the pie after the Big 3 declined and they still failed

 

[SneederFeeder]

While a lot of people throw out that Djokovic and Nadal sticking around at the top of the game is the reason for their poor showings, I don't think it fully justifies them at all, the 90s is the weakest Tennis generation regardless of the Big 3.

You can make an obvious argument for their earlier years, but there's no reason 90% of 2020-now slams haven't been won by 90s players. Prime Djokovic and Nadal were not around anymore, not even close.

And their top guns, Z Med etc, are still around their Prime, yet getting easily outgunned by Sinner and Alcaraz already.

You may say that "Eh they're facing generational talents on both sides" but that just brings attention to the fact that there's no "generational talent" player in the 90s, unlike every other generation before and after.