If you are an Indian sports fan, chances are Tennis has been a perennial bridesmaid for the cricket crazy populace. Number of times, Tennis has at least got equal billing if not more and like everything, Indians are adept at the art of rattling out statistics, tennis not being an exception. Indian fans know more about soccer and tennis despite their country not been able to match their fans statistical prowess by putting someone on the court, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza amongst the biggest exceptions to that. These three after the heydays of Amritraj brothers and Krishnan family had put India on the global pedestal and returned home with grand slam hardware and in case of Paes, even an Olympic Bronze.
This is not about Indian tennis. This is about admiring the game and number of its superstars that we have all grown up over the years and what better time to write this than when men’s tennis is in its most golden phase and has a three headed monster at the helm. That monster or the holy trinity of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic who have conquered the world and each have 20 grand slam singles titles – before Roger won his 20th, no other male had won more than 14, a feat unmatched and now we have three of them on that pedestal, with all of them, Novak in particular threatening to add many more with age relatively on his side.
1970’s and 1980’s kid growing up in India and even later decades, had their own heroes and own folklore. My first real memories of tennis are 1980-1981 the years when Bjorn Borg with his long mane and wooden racket was slugging it out against the young, short tempered and foul mouthed John McEnroe on the courts of Wimbledon. That was the first seismic shift as I had observed and as I started getting older and interest in the game increased exponentially, so did the knowledgebase and came across the Aussie quartet who had ruled the 1960’s and 1970’s and others but the first rivalry I saw was between the soft-spoken Borg who embodied the Swedish spirit and the foul mouthed but charismatic McEnroe. Add to that Jimmy Connors and the Americans had two of the best southpaws to grace the game. Borg was one of the few who conquered the English and French alike and had the game to balance between the fast-paced Wimbledon with its counterpart across the English Channel.
Those years even had an Indian name to it and pre McEnroe era, when someone said, A, B, C of Tennis, it meant Amritraj, Borg, Connors and India’s own Vijay Amritraj was held in that high esteem. Vijay Amritraj though did not make it to the primetime like the other two but in terms of respect, he commanded the same and every time Amritraj brothers, Krishnan father-son and Leander Paes represented India in Davis cup, they played like soldiers and laid it all down for their country. No wonder India achieved lot better with less in Davis Cup.
United States as I said was blessed to have the two of them Connors and McEnroe dominate the early 1980’s and from there, the action shifted to Europe, the swedes, German(s), Czechs all put their proverbial hand up and make counted. Likes of Mats Wilander, Stephen Edberg led the swiss challenge, Boris Becker showed what the Germans were capable of and Ivan Lendl the workman Czech who put the glamour aside to carve out the top echelon of tennis players. Women’s tennis also had a similar seismic balance with Chris Evert and before that Billy Jean King holding the star-spangled banner aloft and Martina Navratilova rounding up Czech challenge. When Chris Evert was engaged to Jimmy Connors, one thought this was a beginning of men’s and women’s tennis reunion ending in alliance but that was short lived, and that alliance did culminate but after the hey days when Andre Agassi brought home Steffi Graf the 22-time Grand Slam winner from Germany and added to his own 8 slams.
Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander were all finesse, baseline player, relentless while Edberg and Becker thrived on serve and volley and Lendl still had a better serve and volley game edge over Wilander. Each of these guys were great in that era but when you compare their records to the holy trinity and their records pale in comparison. Becker set Wimbledon ablaze with his booming serves and he was the first exponent of the high-octane German firepower engine. Edberg was as calm as it gets and personified rather contrasting spirit to Becker and surprisingly, they had similar style of play if you leave serve aside. All these guys were great but none of them succeeded in winning the career slam, with one slam or the other eluding them. Lendl and Wilander never prevailed on the grass of Wimbledon and Wilander won three of the titles in 1988 but Wimbledon stayed elusive, and his compatriot Edberg won Wimbledon to round off Swedish Grand Slam and interestingly that year, Steffi Graf had a Golden Slam – all four grand slam wins and cherry on the top in Gold medal at Seoul Olympics. Steffi Graf ran the race faster than all her competitors.
Aussies had started their revival during the same time from their domination days and put out Pat Cash, Patrick Rafter (though not at the same time) but they continued to be also ran and then there were one trick ponies – the players who played and thrived on single surface and stayed in the reckoning, like Thomas Muster of Austria who was first clay court specialist before Rafa (and Rafa isn’t just clay court if you look at his two Wimbledon titles). If Muster was clay court, we had the erratic yet flamboyant Goran Ivanisevic led the Croatian challenge during the times Yugoslavia was split and the Serbians, Croats, put their names in.
Tennis has been that sport where no one country has dominated forever though there are number of them who have continued to produce the top talent and the beauty of it is even the smallest country can put out a player who can dominate the world due to his gifted and talented performance.
Before going to rave about holy trinity, the article must pay homage to the era of Sampras, Agassi, Courier and the times of American dominance and if Sampras was the epitome of power game, Agassi was finesse personified and man with golden return and the flamboyance and Courier was a workhorse and a bit later another American Roddick who was another power player. Add to that Australian Hewitt and you rounded the top tier. Sampras was the one who held the record for the most grand slams which was eclipsed by each of the three but in that era, tennis had more spread-out winners and wasn’t dominated as it has been. It hasn’t been the lack of competition these days, the current crop of players is better but then you have just stumbled upon a golden age when the roads need to pass through superlative players and whatever you do isn’t enough.
Current era you can compare to the times of 1980’s and 1990’s to NBA, where Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson formed a similar trinity and they controlled most of the championships during that 10-15 year window. Similarly, Roger, Rafa ad Novak have had lion’s share of the trophies during this decade, with Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka also getting counted. Murray promised a lot and looked like he will be that Talisman from Queen’s own country before injuries got better of him but with Roger, Rafa and Novak, it is like a visit to Hogwarts and watching wizardry in action. Though the records may not suggest as Novak will surely upstage Roger, but I still commend Roger to be the best of all time as he was the last bridge between the era of Sampras and Agassi to now and boy he has faced some serious competition and has made it look easy on eyes. He has at times simply caressed the tennis ball and at times the racket has been the wand in his hands. Rafa on the other hand is a Spanish workhorse who is relentless and resilient like no other and is not naturally gifted or elegant like Roger but talk about hardworking man on the court and you won’t find another one who protects and makes opponents earn points of him. One of the blurbs on Rafa’s record is his unrivaled performance at red clay of Paris and his records there sticking out like a sore thumb. Novak comes across as the most arrogant and brash of the three but then he is also the youngest and one would feel that way when despite all his heroics, when the partisan crowds at Grand Slams have been rooting for Roger as if he is their own son.
Respect and love, Roger has earned like no other and he has been that ideal role model that the tennis world embodies. Roger of late has been the most injured among the three as well and at times, makes us wonder what if he had stayed healthy all throughout. He is that swiss luxury that people marvel over and the younger Novak or Rafa also have been in awe at times and have tried to emulate and subsequently better Roger.
Russians have contributed lot of the top 10 in Tennis and Medvedev is starting to do that again in men’s but Russian contingent has been more dominant in women’s tennis. Women’s tennis though was still ruled in the past decade by Williams sisters who took the sport to another level. If we have Novak trying to sit atop the grand slam winners in men’s, Serena is looking at upstaging Steffi to own the crown for herself. Likewise, Spaniards such as Bruguera, Moya etc. were the beasts of red clay.
An interesting trivia for those who like that is first test match in cricket was played in 1877 between England and Australia and first grand slam tournament was played in Wimbledon, England in 1877, same year. Tennis as a sport has been around for as many years but what makes it even more compelling and attractive is one can stop playing cricket around 40 (if you are healthy and good) but Tennis is something you can play as a recreation sport and stay fit till your legs allow.
