When It Comes to Describing Tennis…
… These elaborate essays about the game might just help
Tennis is arguably the best individual sport, which a rich history of innovation and success. While it narrates many stories of players who made their name as the greatest in the game, tennis is also about those players who failed to fulfill their promises, and ended up underachieving to a significant extent.
Once upon a time, the men’s singles category in tennis was competitive. There were players who won more than others but none that entirely dominated. Heading into a tournament, a tennis fan could never claim with a degree of certainty as to who will end up as the winner. The sport was a lot more interesting.
While in the 1970s, we had players of the caliber of Arthur Ashe, John Newcombe, Jimmy Connors, Björn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, John McEnroe, in the 1980s emerged talents like Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, and even Andre Agassi. Then came a certain Pete Sampras in the 1990s. Tennis couldn’t recover.
While you should never compare different eras, the fact is, in this century the triumvirate of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic took over. The trio has won 82.5% of all the Grand Slam tournaments played since July 2004. They have been occupying the top ranking for more than…
