Yesterday, the great Novak Djokovic fell decisively to the young Italian superstar Jannik Sinner. At the risk of quoting myself, in my last post on Djokovic’s unbelievable 2023, I said “Not that you heard it here first, but Sinner is a future number one, with many future majors likely to his credit.” Watching Sinner play, it was, at least for this long-time observer of the tennis scene, not a question of “if” but “when.” Well, folks, “when is now.” As I’ve also previously noted, for Sinner to have beaten Medvedev as he did in last season’s ATP finals in Turin was no mean feat. Medvedev is one of the very best—if not the best—hard court player in the world. And for Sinner to have beaten him on his best surface clearly established his arrival as a competitor at the very highest level. Sinner will face a great challenge in Medvedev in tomorrow’s final, but so will Sinner. I’ve long considered Medvedev Djokovic’s toughest competitor on a hard court. Not that Djokovic fans need any reminding, but Medvedev deprived the Joker of the calendar slam with his 2021 victory. The only other person to do that was the young Spanish phenom, Carlos Alcaraz in last year’s Wimbledon. As I look over this first paragraph, I realize I’ve just listed the top four players in the world. Just outside this magic circle are Taylor Fritz and the reinvigorated Sasha Zverev, and the underrated Hubert Hurkacz Who would have thought that Zverev could have bounced back from his devastating ankle injury while playing against the great Rafael Nadal and make it to the quarterfinals of The Australian Open only to lose a heartbreaker to Daniil Medvedev. With no disrespect to Novak Djokovic—who is still the world number 1–we are looking at the post-Djokovic era in these five splendid athletes nipping at his heels. By the way, one statistic that leaps off the page when looking at the gen-next players is height. While the golden trio of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic were not exactly stunted in height (ranging between 6’1 and 6’2”), the quarter finalists at Melbourne included five men 6’5” and over (Sinner, Medvedev, Zverev, Hurkacz , and Fritz)! As recently as the mid-70’s, it was not unusual to have world number ones under six-feet (e.g. McEnroe and Connors). It’s no wonder the rest of us average-heighted men find it so welcoming to have “little” Carlito in the mix.
I have two thoughts on tomorrow’s final. While I don’t bet on sports, I’d have to give the edge to Sinner. In addition to being hungrier and playing “lights out” tennis, he no longer falters in tough situations. A lesser player might have crumbled after losing the third-set tiebreaker to Djokovic (after holding a couple of match-points), but Sinner quickly regrouped, and cruised to victory in the uneventful fourth set. Medvedev was stretched to his limit in his remarkable comeback against Zverev. Whether he has enough gas in the proverbial tank to beat the relatively well- rested Sinner remains to be seen. What you will be seeing are the two heirs to Djokovic’s throne squaring off to being “King of the Hard-Courts.” I hope tennis fans get the match we deserve—a great one.
I suppose the big question is whether Djokovic will ever hoist another Major trophy. Not so long ago, I was hoping he’d tie Federer and Nadal at 20, and they’d ride off into their well-deserved sunsets as equal GOATS. Once Nadal, amazingly, tacked on Majors 21 and 22, I thought he had a lock on the most ever. And so, when Nole not only tied him, but went on to win numbers 23 and 24, I felt then that he was both skillful (and lucky) to have done so. Since I never thought the Joker would tie Nadal I can no more complain about his title runs being over than I could (in good conscience) bemoan my beloved New York Yankees if they never win another World Series in what remains of my lifetime. After all, no other team will ever come close to 27 World Championships and—guess what—no one will ever tie Djokovic’s 24. Yeah, I know they said that about Sampras and Federer, but no one’s going to catch Nole—ever. And so, if the King be dead, he may yet rise from the dead. If not, “Long live the King!”
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