Is Tennis Moving Into a New Golden Age? We Can Only Hope.

There was one thing for everybody. Roger Federer’s linen grace. Rafael Nadal’s punishing energy. Novak Djokovic and his single-minded willpower. The unwavering approach Serena Williams dismantled drained custom.

For 20 years, skilled tennis bathed within the golden glow offered by an unalterable hierarchy of gamers with distinctive kinds and personalities that mixed to outline the sport within the twenty first century.

But time, and the coronavirus, modifications all the pieces.

For the second main championship in a row, because the Australian Open performs out in searing Melbourne warmth, Federer and Williams discover themselves at dwelling, therapeutic from accidents at age 40. We might by no means see them play top-flight tennis once more.

Gone, too, after all, is Djokovic.

It’s unclear when the world No. 1 will return to main championship play, and the way the scorn of followers will have an effect on a participant who has spent his profession craving for adoration. Depending on how the pandemic unfolds, tennis’s most famed vaccine refusenik might find yourself barred from touring to the international locations internet hosting the yr’s largest tournaments, imperiling his quest to interrupt effectively previous the 20 Grand Slam logjam he’s in with Federer and Nadal.

Of the golden quartet, solely Nadal made his strategy to Melbourne. A well-worn 35, he’s coming off a foot damage that saved him out of the combo for many of final yr.

He seemed sharp in the course of the Australian’s early stanza, maybe ok to summon greatness once more and lift the championship trophy for a second time. Even if he does, how for much longer can the Nadal we’ve recognized be the Nadal we revere?

What in tennis may be counted on anymore?

Nothing.

The days when the sport might lean on the showstopping energy of its rock star quartet to lure followers and add pleasure — the times of penciling them in as locks to make no less than the semifinals of each main title — these days are executed.

Remember when Naomi Osaka was presupposed to be the subsequent huge factor? Right now, her final main title win, the Australian Open final winter, appears on this time-warped stretch as if it occurred a decade fairly than a yr in the past.

She left final yr’s French Open midstream, utilizing the event to open up concerning the anxiousness and despair sitting heavy on her shoulders. She skipped Wimbledon, needing time away from the grind and glare. She misplaced early on the U.S. Open and the Tokyo Olympics. Last week, Osaka’s bid to repeat at Melbourne ended by the hands of the world’s Sixtieth-ranked participant.

Remember Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, the upstart youngsters who electrified final summer season’s U.S. Open by making the ladies’s finals? Neither has executed a lot since. Fernandez misplaced within the first spherical final week. Raducanu received tossed off within the second.

Maybe there’s a silver lining within the sport’s newfound uncertainty. Free of the shadow solid by the most important stars, it’s simpler to achieve enthusiasm for a wider solid.

During the preliminary week at Melbourne Park, that meant marveling at Amanda Anisimova, 20, as she ripped backhand winners previous Osaka in an upset win. Or watching Carlos Alcaraz, 18, dash, slide and stretch to maintain a level alive earlier than all of a sudden hauling off and smacking a full-throttle winner.

Uncertainty offered extra shine to the younger Italian Jannik Sinner, as stunningly gifted an upstart as there may be, as he pressed his approach by the draw.

It put extra concentrate on Ashleigh Barty, final yr’s Wimbledon champion, possessor of the smoothest sport this facet of Federer.

Will Daniil Medvedev, who crushed Djokovic’s Grand Slam desires by beating the Serb to win the 2021 U.S. Open, wrest away the world No. 1 rating? What occurs if he turns into one of many sport’s constant standard-bearers?

In Melbourne final week, Medvedev flashed his quirky and virtually unfathomable sport. Several of his strokes look as in the event that they had been self-taught and honed at a craggy public park by enjoying with duffers — the reflex volley with one hand on the racket’s throat, the gawky forehand that typically ends with legs splayed and a strangulating follow-through.

As Medvedev usually has at Flushing Meadows, he confirmed he may be an enticing champion — witty, open and more than willing to play the villain with a wink.

This yr, the usually rowdy Australian Open crowd has been utilizing Cristiano Ronaldo’s famed “Siuuu!” celebration shout throughout matches. That has angered a number of gamers, Medvedev included, who thought the chants had been boos throughout his victory over Nick Kyrgios. As we would count on based mostly on his previous shenanigans on the U.S. Open, Medvedev raised hackles from the group when he scolded them for the mantra in an on-court interview.

He later defined together with his customary willingness to attract ire: “It’s not everybody who is doing it. But those who are doing it probably have a low I.Q.”

Imagine Federer saying such a factor about followers. Impossible. But perhaps that’s a good and energizing change.

It is troublesome to let go of a technology.

A brand new period has arrived. All we will do is embrace it, wait patiently, and hope for the most effective.