New kids on the block lack the Big Four's X factor

As the sages tell us: be careful what you wish for.
Jamie Murray (right) and Bruno Soares eye the ball against Bob and Mike Bryan during their doubles match at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London. Picture: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty ImagesJamie Murray (right) and Bruno Soares eye the ball against Bob and Mike Bryan during their doubles match at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London. Picture: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images
Jamie Murray (right) and Bruno Soares eye the ball against Bob and Mike Bryan during their doubles match at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London. Picture: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

For years, the critics of tennis have been waiting for the next wave of superstars to arrive and remove the establishment from their seats of power. For too long Messrs Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray have been hoovering up the titles and ensuring that the sport’s landscape if free of all serious challengers to their dominance. Or so the argument went.

But as the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals move through up to full speed at London’s O2 Arena, we have a sobering sight of what the future holds for tennis. Sure enough, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are the marquee names this week, but there is no Andy Murray and no Novak Djokovic. In their place, we have the likes of Jack Sock, Marin Cilic and David Goffin – good players all, but hardly fan favourites and history makers of the class of the Big Four.

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Last year Murray and the Djokovic went toe-to-toe for the end-of-year No1 ranking and the arena was gripped. Twelve months on and Nadal is still hoping – and possibly hopping on that dodgy right knee of his – to win his first Tour Finals crown, while Federer is everyone’s favourite to collect his seventh end-of-year trophy. Somehow, the atmosphere is not quite the same.

Murray and his ailing hip made a brief appearance on Saturday to practice with Dominic Thiem, and the very fact it was reported in the media proves the point that he is sorely missed at this year’s event. But as his brother, Jamie, pointed out yesterday to the BBC, without Andy, the whole of British tennis would be in a parlous state.

“I hope that when me and Andy stop playing that there will be something to show for it, there will be some sort of legacy,” Jamie said. “I mean, right now, if today was our last day playing tennis, I would say that there hasn’t been.

“I hope that people who are in the necessary positions are going to have a vision of what is a way to kind of grow – or at least make the most of – the interest that we’ve brought to tennis in this country and that can make the most of it.

“I think we just wait and see how that money’s spent and hopefully that there are a lot more covered [sports venues]. That’s not just a problem in tennis, but in all sports in Scotland with the climate that we have.”

It is not the first time Jamie, who together with Bruno Soares lost his opening round robin match yesterday to the Bryan brothers 7-5, 6-7, 10-8, has made this depressing claim, while his mother, Judy, has been campaigning for someone to build on her sons’ successes for years.

After all, there were 77 years between Fred Perry and Andy winning Wimbledon; grand slam champions do not come around very often round these parts. Now is the time to move before it is too late.

The O2 should play host to around 250,000 fans over the course of this week but, then again, Federer and Nadal always sell tickets. The final weekend of the tournament is sold out and the opening day was a sell-out, but the first Sunday was a Federer day and with London knee-deep in Swiss bankers, they came in their thousands with their cow bells and Swiss flags. They came with the expectation of seeing their man win – he duly obliged – and they will be back next weekend in the hope of seeing him win the title.

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But Federer is 36; Nadal is 31. What they have achieved this year, coming on the back of injury-ravaged seasons in 2016, is remarkable but they cannot go on forever. And once they are gone, the future looks bleak.

World No3 Alexander Zverev, who plays Federer tonight, is a rising star and, at 20, a grand slam champion in waiting. But compared to the relentless brilliance of the Big Four, the sort of success that turned tennis into a global entertainment rather than the specialist fans’ niche market, it is pretty slim pickings.

Those sages were right: be careful what you wish for.