Tennis is turning young — that just might be a fair way of looking at it. In men’s tennis, the fascinating era of the trio of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic has finally waned, with only Djokovic still in action.
The domination that they had over the past two decades is so rare in sports that
the generation that got to witness it, as fans or as rivals, is surely lucky. Djokovic is still eager to earn his 25th grand slam title. Federer called it a day with 20 under his belt and Nadal retired with 22. The numbers are mindboggling as is their longevity.
But now, it is time to look ahead at what is in store. The next generation represented by the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and the slightly older ones like Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev are trying their best to fill up the huge shoes of the Big Three.
But suddenly, a bunch of teens are grabbing eyeballs, especially at the ongoing Australian Open.
On late Thursday night, 19-year-old American Learner Tien taught three-time Australian Open runner-up and fifth seed Daniil Medvedev a thing or two, defeating him 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (8-10), 1-6, 7-6 (9-7) in a four-hour-49-minute marathon that finished just short of 3am (local time) in Melbourne.
The upset made Tien the youngest American man to reach the third round at the Australian Open since Pete Sampras did so at the age of 18 in 1990.
The youngster is ranked 121 and is yet to win a Tour-level tournament. He has never gone past the first round at the US Open and is yet to play in the other two majors. But did he show promise on Thursday night? He sure did.
He plays his third-round match against world No. 69 Frenchman Corentin Moutet on Saturday.
Tien is not the only one who has sent a top-10 player home with the ‘Happy Slam’ just six days old.
Jakub Mensik, a 19-year-old Czech with a gigantic serve and soft touch, knocked out Casper Ruud, the No. 6, on Wednesday. Mensik, however, made his exit on Friday, losing to Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in five gruelling sets. Unable to protect a two-set lead and a match point in the third set against the more experienced Spaniard, he will perhaps pick up a few pointers for the future.
And that again underscores the fact that real champions know how to maintain a good run and last the two weeks of a championship.
Mensik, ranked 49, has never gone past the third round in a major and is yet to win a Tour-level tournament.
Another head-turner has been Brazil’s Joao Fonseca. The 18-year-old qualifier, ranked 112, beat ninth seed Andrey Rublev on his major debut, but could not go past Italian Lorenzo Sonego in the second round.
None of these three have won any tournament of importance till date, but have become talking points in Melbourne.
The women’s side, relatively, has stayed calmer. Only two top-10 players have been shown the door so far. Fifth seed Qinwen Zheng fell to Laura Siegemund, while No. 7 Jessica Pegula lost to Olga Danilovic on Friday.
However, 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva is creating ripples in the game mostly dominated by Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff in the recent past. Ranked 15th and seeded 14th in Melbourne, she has booked her place in the last 16. But, a huge hurdle awaits her in the next round in the form of world No.1 Sabalenka.
What these teens have in their favour is a lot of time and raw talent to make it big. Whether they will be able to live up to the promise they have shown early remains to be seen. But the future of tennis will surely be more exciting if they make it big.
