Tennis trio keeps 7-year grip on majors
Federer, Nadal, Djokovic hold 28 of last 29 titles
Grand Slam hardware has taken up residence in tennis’ version of Fort Knox.
The combination: Novak Djokovic (three turns left) . . . Rafael Nadal (two turns right) ... Roger Federer. Click.
Nobody has been able to crack it.
The neatly groomed grass at Wimbledon, which begins Monday, offers a fresh assault.
But bringing the utter dominion of the three top-ranked men to a halt in London, or anywhere soon, will be about as tough as breaking into the uber-fortified Kentucky gold depository.
Defending Wimbledon champion Djokovic, last year’s finalist Nadal and six-time winner Federer have captured an unprecedented 28 of the last 29 Grand Slam tournaments.
No trio in the history of men’s tennis has so dominated majors in a seven-year stretch.
By contrast, consider golf, where 15 different men, including nine first-timers, have shared the last 15 majors.
Parity? Thy name is not men’s tennis.
The challenge is not beating the Serb, Spaniard or Swiss in the best-of-five set format of the majors. It’s having the self-belief to do it more than once.
“Everyone in the top 15 feels like they can do it on any given day,” 12th-ranked Mardy Fish of the USA said this week.
“The problem is that you have to beat two of those guys or maybe three. No one has shown they can beat all three.”
For instance, Robin Soderling of Sweden took out seven-time winner Nadal in the 2009 French Open but couldn’t get past Federer in the final. Czech Tomas Berdych upended Federer at Wimbledon in 2010 but finished runner-up to Nadal.
To date, no one has carved through the threesome in a major. Managing to knock off two could be enough.
Juan Martin del Potro of Ar- gentina topped Nadal and Federer in succession to win the 2009 U.S. Open — the only major not owned by the trio since the 2005 Australian Open.
Big servers such as 6-5 Milos Raonic of Canada, 6-9 John Isner of the USA and explosive JoWilfried Tsonga of France have the best chance of breaking the stranglehold at Wimbledon, according to John McEnroe.
“I’d pick Raonic, Isner and Tsonga if I was going to pick the three guys that are sort of ... not in left field but would be the best bet to upend all those guys,” McEnroe told news reporters in an ESPN conference call. “But I don’t know if anyone can do that, have that great a day three times in a row.”
Fish gives the nod to bigmatch players such as No. 4 Andy Murray, a Scot who is a threetime Grand Slam finalist with multiple wins against Djokovic, Nadal and Federer; Berdych, an All-England Club finalist in 2010; and even three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick, who has slipped outside the top 30.
“All these guys can win big matches,” said Fish, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2011 who is playing his first event since having a procedure for a heart condition.
“Who knows, if (Roddick) can get on a roll and get a little bit of confidence. Obviously he’s pretty comfortable here, too. He can get on a roll on this surface.”
Three-time Wimbledon titlist McEnroe said upsets and injuries could help pave the way.
So could a more aggressive game plan — a “Pete Sampras style where they unsettle” their opponents, he said.
“I think they could be even more dangerous if they altered the game a little bit” by coming in to the net more, he noted.
If it’s any consolation for those hoping to break through, at least they can count on this: Djokovic, Nadal and Federer all arrive in London on one-match losing streaks.
That hasn’t happened in a while, either.
But as longtime commentator Cliff Drysdale said in the ESPN conference call, it’s very hard to find any cracks in the armor of the top three.