No kidding ... it’s still the men winning major trophies
NADAL, 32, AND FEDERER, 36, HAVE WON 37 OF LAST 61 MAJOR TITLES
Boris Becker earned the nickname “Boom Boom” for his massive serve. He dove for volleys with the abandon of a child jumping in mud puddles. And when he won his first Wimbledon championship in 1985, he wasn’t much older than a child.
At 17, Becker made history as the youngest man to win a Grand Slam championship. But he looked more boy than man that day at the All England Club as he thrust his arms skyward in triumph, a huge smile spreading over his plump, rosy cheeks and grass stains covering his once-white shorts.
For all the brashness of Becker’s game, he wasn’t the only precocious player of his generation. In the nine-year span from 1982 to 1990, five teenagers combined to win nine Grand Slam titles in men’s tennis (Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Michael Chang and Pete Sampras, in addition to Becker).
In the 28 years since, it has happened just once: In 2005, when 19-year-old Rafael Nadal won the first of his 11 French Open titles.
The disappearance of teenage men’s champions from the sport’s four majors is the result of multiple factors — not the least of which is the enduring excellence of Nadal, now 32, and 36-yearold Roger Federer. Currently ranked No. 1 and 2 in the world, respectively, they have combined to win 37 of the last 61 major titles, dating from 2003. And they’re showing no sign of relenting — instead, getting wiser about how to manage their bodies and careers — which partly explains how they’ve hogged the past six consecutive Grand Slam titles, taking turns hoisting the trophy at each. (Nadal won the 2018 and 2017 French Opens, as well as the 2017 US Open; Federer claimed the 2018 and 2017 Australian Opens, as well as Wimbledon in 2017).
Federer will be favoured when he opens pursuit of a ninth Wimbledon title tomorrow at the All England Club — even though he’s now a father of four and nearly 20 years older than Becker was in 1985.
Change in technology
“Kids can’t beat grown-ups anymore the way they used to,” tennis analyst Mary Carillo put it bluntly, summing up the myriad factors behind the generational shift that’s so striking at the top of the men’s game.
For one, changes in the technology or rackets and strings have sped up the pace of play dramatically. Moreover, changes in the way elite athletes train, eat and recover, aided by the services of fulltime trainers, coaches and hitting partners. All told, the evolution of tennis in recent decades has put Grand Slam titles out of reach for even exceptionally gifted teens, particularly in the bet-offive-set format required to win a men’s major.
But that’s not to declare teenage tennis champions extinct, argued Patrick McEnroe, who competed in the era of Wilander, Edberg and Sampras and has devoted his career since to developing the next generation of players. “Five years ago, I would have said it will never happen again,” said McEnroe, 51, in a telephone interview. “But now, I see what’s happening at the junior level. These kids are now training in another way, at another level, 12 months a year to be prepared at 19 to physically compete.”
But it is a tall order, both physically and mentally, to win seven best-of-five-set matches in the current era against a 128-player field almost exclusively composed of grown men.
“I’m not gonna say it’s impossible,” former pro Brad Gilbert said. “But it’s a lot more difficult [today], with the physical demands and the length of time it takes to get to where you can handle that.”
For decades, Grand Slam championships could be won on tennis skill alone. No longer, McEnroe explained.