Nadal leads march of the oldies
ONE day someone younger will come along to dislodge the holy trinity of men’s tennis: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. But at the halfway point of the US Open they continue to be as stubbornly dominant as ever. Last night Nadal became the first of them through to the last eight, eventually outclassing Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 to stay on course for a successful title defence. ‘He played fantastic. A lot of credit to him,’ said Nadal. ‘I’m very happy to be through. I did what I have to do.’ Georgia’s Basilashvili fought strongly, but he is not one of the rising players expected to make an impact at the Grand Slams. Most of those have already perished, backing the theory that the elite are probably even better than we thought, while the younger generation are not quite as good as had been predicted. At least Austria’s Dominic Thiem, who turns 25 today, last night slightly bucked the trend by beating the more experienced Kevin Anderson 7-5, 6-2, 7-6. But world No 4 Alex Zverev, who has hired Ivan Lendl to help make the breakthrough at Grand Slams, still went down in four sets to 34-year-old Austrian compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber.