Top 5 Men in the Rankings Are All 30 Years Old or More. Incredible!

[markowitz]

With 35 year old Roger Federer back and possibly playing 39 year old Tommy Haas in Stuttgart, the men’s tennis world finds itself in a spot its never been in before, it’s top five players are all 30 and over (Murray 30, Nadal 31, Wawa 32, Djoko 30 and Fed 35). This is quite amazing. Without putting in a call to the ATP media stat guy guru, Greg Sharko, I’d imagine this oddity, feat, wild occurrence, has never ever even closely happened before. The next five men in the rankings are all in their 20’s (Raonic, Cilic, Thiem, Nishikori and Zverev) before we get back to a 30-something player in Tsonga, but only Thiem (23) and Zverev (20) are 25-and-younger.

What has happened to the men’s tennis world? There used to be a time not too far ago when a champion like Borg or McEnroe never won a slam after the age of 25! Now shockingly the only younger-than-25-year-old players in the ATP’s Top 50 are the two aforementioned and Pouille, Sock, Kyrgios, Schwartzman, Khachanov, Harrison, Edmund, Coric and Tomic and realistically, the only players on this list who have a chance to be top 10 players are Pouille, Sock, Kyrgios, Khachanov and maybe Coric. Where are all the great young players? Gone for soldiers, no as in the old song about flowers and young men, no they’ve just been eclipsed by this Great Generation and a half of players at the top now including Tsonga, Berdych and Delpo.

Yes, Federer is back saying all the right things, “I think Rafa winning the French Open is less of a surprise because he’d done it nine times before… I was hoping he was going to dominate the clay-court season like the olden days.” And “I’m sure a lot of guys are going to start playing their best in the second half of the season, like Murray, Djokovic, Nishikori, Raonic, Zverev, Kyrgios, Stan. We’ll all be playing our best tennis. It’s going to be an epic finish to the end of the season. Quite exciting actually for the ATP Tour.”

You notice he didn’t mention Thiem or Sock or Isner, because in the latter two’s case, American tennis has gone to hell in a handbag as far as challenging for slam glory. But of the players Fed did mention, only Zverev and Kyrgios are 22 and under and neither one has ventured past the third round in 2017’s first two slams.

How long can the 30+ dominance continue and which 20+ player is going to be able to dive in and break up this very mature hegemony at the top of the game and rankings?

 

[scoop]

Which match? The State red clay 45s? I was not full strength yesterday after playing two tough matches the day before (Sunday) in 90 degree plus heat vs a solid 4.5 and a Division 1 college player which I won both in two sets on hard court. I was a bit tired yesterday and was a little off on the move from hard court to red clay and even worse to compound my problems the string popped on the third ball of the warmup on my Babolat Pure Storm which I have been using the last two mths and I was forced to play with a different feeling Volkl And the opponent is very good hard hitter and big server who I was 0-3 against in USTA tourneys. I lost 63 75 with all those things going against me

 

[scoop]

LOL Chazz

 

[scoop]

Winning two rounds in that draw is a very good result Jimmy unless you had a cake draw or both your opponents subconsciously tanked You must be a very good player. I might go back to watch a friend play in the open doubles tonight at 630. They won two rounds and had a huge win vs a top team on Sunday.

 

[scoop]

JTG; my friend plays against Lacroix tonight in doubles. I heard Chatham Center Court has reduced the draw size down because members don't like all the courts being used up all week because of the huge draws that tourney always gets. I played a kid Vivek Subramamian when he was fourteen in an open final in Old Bridge (he won 75 62) and he later went on to play at UMiami. Great players play at UM. Where did or do you play college tennis?

 

[scoop]

Yes Nishioka Dan. I saw this guy beat down Sock, absorbing Sock's power and countering like a Rios. I saw Nishioka beat down Berdych. Also took Rafa to a first set tiebreaker in Acapulco. Nishioka is a marvel. You need to study Nishioka Dan.

 

[scoop]

JG; Good players are everywhere. DC area has a lot of great players juniors and seniors and could be producing more top juniors than USTA eastern is right now.

 

[scoop]

Dan you can't comment on Nishioka if you haven't seen him play a match or two or three. The guy has something very special. You can't write a guy off after reading his ATP media guide page.

 

[markowitz]

Scoop, I've seen Nishioka play many times, and also live at USO and Indy Wells. He's definitely improved, but the dude's like 5-7 with high heels and now with a torn acl, I don't like his chances of being a top 20 player. He's got good feel for the game and moves well, but as we saw with Chang when he lost a step, if a guy like Nishioka even loses a mini-step, he's going to suffer greatly. You don't see the smaller player besides Shwartzman doing particularly well anymore. Ferrer, Smyczek, Rochus, Santoro, these guys don't exist anymore at anywhere near the top of the game.

 

[scoop]

Nishikori is five foot ten and he exists at the top of the game Dan, you cant stick your fork in the little guys like you did to Harrison Harrison must have about three dozen fork holes from all the forks you stuck in him.

 

[markowitz]

I know Harry's no 41 now, but I wouldn't say he's exactly burning up the tour. Since he won Memphis in Feb. beating Basalshivili in the finals, Harry's won a total of four matches with a withdrawl from Delpo. So he's won 4 matches in 4 months, and the only guys he's beaten are Donaldson, Garcia-Lopez, Tomic and Ebden. He's played ten tourneys and won a total of 4 matchess So Harry isn't exactly lighting up the joint. As for Nishioka, the dude's 5-7. Nishikori towers over him. How many Asian male players since Chang, who was probably like 5-7 too but listed at 5-9 I believe, have done well? Zero.

 

[TFBlogGuest]

Bryan writes:

In a prior era the 30+ club would surprise. Not now. Federer, Nadal et al will not be brushed aside by these young guns. They're too talented, fitness is now a year round routine for top players, and diet is also enhancing longevity. The ATP will be very interesting for the next two years as old lions defend their status and young cubs come of age.