THE NEW GENERATION OF elite men’s tennis players is a small, tight-knit group. With a pro tour that stretches from January through November, and from Melbourne to New York, Tokyo to Monte Carlo, they spend a lot of time together, shooting the shit in locker rooms, ice baths, and hotel restaurants—and in group chats that date back to their early teenage years. They talk about tennis, mostly. And lately, the conversations have revolved around a new line of speculation: Which one of them is up next? In other words, as the 25-year-old American rising star Frances Tiafoe put it to me recently, “Who’s going to be the guy out of our group to win a Grand Slam, and then continue to win Grand Slams and be at the top of the game?”
The crop of players in contention to be that guy has arrived like an answered prayer. For the better part of the past two decades, tennis was dominated by the so-called Big Three: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic. From 2004 to last year’s US Open, the trio won 62 out of 75 Grand Slams, the historic and moneyed quartet of tournaments that make or break legacies. But by the end of last year, Federer had retired, Nadal had begun to grapple with ever-more-frequent injuries, and an unvaccinated Djokovic’s major appearances had become contingent on travel rules and restrictions.
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