LONDON (Reuters) – Rafael Nadal will end the year as the world’s top-ranked player and the “big three” retained their stranglehold on the Grand Slam titles, but when Stefanos Tsitsipas was crowned ATP Finals champion on Sunday it felt like a watershed moment.
“I believe I’m really close on being crowned a Grand Slam champion. I know these are strong words that I say, but I do feel like I belong to be there,” the 21-year-old Greek boldly claimed after beating Dominic Thiem.
There have been false dawns before of course. Germany’s Alexander Zverev, like Greek Tsitsipas, was also 21 last year when he beat Novak Djokovic to win the season-ender in London.
Zverev could not back it up in this year’s Slams, two of which were won by the 33-year-old Nadal and two by the 32-year-old Djokovic. They have 19 and 16 majors each while Roger Federer, at 38, will still believe he can add to the record 20 he has accumulated during his extraordinary career.
But for the first time, that golden trio will be having an anxious glance over their shoulders. The past week in London has revealed a new fearlessness in the generation of 20 somethings expected to fill the void when they call it a day.
Austrian Thiem, who at 26 is an established force, got the ball rolling when he beat Federer on the opening day of the ATP’s exclusive year-ender.
The following day Germany’s Zverev beat Nadal for the first time in his career while earlier that day Tsitsipas marked his tournament debut by beating 23-year-old Russian Daniil Medvedev, who reached this year’s U.S. Open final, for the first time
It did not stop there. Thiem then beat Djokovic and Medvedev should have beaten Nadal, losing from 5-1 up in the decider.
On Saturday, Tsitsipas silenced the Federer fan club to eclipse the six-time champion in straight sets to reach the final — beating the Swiss maestro with the kind of attacking game Federer has trademarked.
