Site Cityam.com and sports writer Frank Dalleres pose the question of whether Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas is ready to dethrone the 3 Big names in the world of tennis, Nadal, Djokovic and Federer. The author of the piece, which lauds the new global tennis sensation, who was recently crowned ATP champion, believes that this next-gen player could actually be the real deal.
It’s a question that feels almost as old as the old guard themselves: is [insert name of young buck here] the man to break Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic’s stranglehold on men’s tennis?
Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev have all been touted as saviours, yet none has managed to succeed and the last 12 grand slam titles have been mopped up by the big three.
So there may be understandable cynicism at the heralding of another new talent in Stefanos Tsitsipas, especially one who looks like he would be more at home on a surf board than holding a racket.
The key to toppling Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will be consistency. It is what sets those three serial winners apart and why so many pretenders have failed to dethrone them.
Dimitrov has not won a title since the ATP Finals two years ago; Raonic’s drought is longer still; Kyrgios has struggled to harness his obvious gifts; and Zverev was in a similar position to Tsitsipas 12 months ago but has not yet kicked on.
Tsitsipas – a pupil of Patrick Mouratoglu, coach to Serena Williams – is convinced he can succeed where his predecessors haven’t.
“I believe I’m really close to being a grand slam champion,” he said following Sunday’s triumph. “I know those are strong words to say but I do feel like I belong there.”
for full piece go to cityam.com
