Tennis

Men’s Tennis Waits (and Waits) for New Blood


“They are so dominant in those tournaments, and it just proves to be incredibly tough to break them,” said Cilic, who has reached two other major finals since 2014 and lost to Federer both times. “I believe the youngsters are coming up and their time is coming, but who knows when? Is it next year, or the year after? We don’t know.”

The obvious contenders among the “youngsters” inspire as much exasperation as excitement. At Wimbledon, the players ranked No. 4 to No. 6 — Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas — lost in the first round.

Thiem came closer to a first Slam title than any man had since Cilic when he won the second set of this year’s French Open final against Nadal. Then Nadal pummeled him, 6-1, 6-1, in the third and fourth sets.

“I got a lot closer; still not there,” Thiem said. “I’ll try to get my next chance in New York.”

Still, Thiem, 25, is the only man currently under 30 to have won a set in a Grand Slam final.

Though the old favorites remain popular, the lack of new winners makes men’s tennis unusually stale on the sports landscape. Since Cilic won the U.S. Open in 2014, there have been 13 new major winners in men’s golf, and nine first-time Grand Slam singles champions in women’s tennis.

Kamau Murray, who coached Sloane Stephens to a breakthrough win at the 2017 U.S. Open and will resume coaching her at this year’s tournament, said the parity on the women’s tour showed that those working with top female players were “doing a bad job of turning good results into motivation, and not into pressure.”

“If we were doing a great job, we’d have people winning multiple weeks in a row; we’re not,” he added.



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