Andy Murray sees NextGen still quite a long way from "Big Three"
Andy Murray spoke on the sidelines of the ATP 250 event in Marseille about the current situation in men's tennis. And sees the long-established representatives still quite a long way from their young pursuers.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Feb 22, 2021, 09:08 pm
It was an impressive show of power that Novak Djokovic conjured onto the pitch on Sunday morning European time in the Australian Rod Laver Arena. Surprisingly, the man from Belgrade stopped Daniil Medvedev's winning streak of 20 games and was crowned champion Down Under for the ninth time. It is already the 18th Grand Slam victory for the Serb.
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And it is another Grand Slam victory for the so-called "Big Three", a Grand Slam victory for a member of the elite group around Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Andy Murray was also part of this club for a while, number four of the "Big Four", who has been struggling with injuries, some of them serious, for some time. At the Australian Open, for example, the Scot had to cancel his start and could not recover from a positive COVID-19 test in time.
Accordingly, Murray paid little attention to the first Grand Slam of the year, as he explained on the sidelines of the ATP 250 event in Marseille, where Murray will start this week. "I didn't look at anything, it was too painful because I really would have liked to be there," French journalist Carole Bouchard quoted the three-time Grand Slam champion on Twitter.
Thiem triumphs in New York - after Djokovic disqualification
So the Scot only noticed by the way how Novak Djokovic was crowned champion of Melbourne again, how the younger generation behind the "Big Three" should fail again because of the dominance of those. For Murray this is an indication that the "NextGen" is "not yet so close" to the big three, that Dominic Thiem's triumph was due to a not insignificant part of the disqualification of the current world number one Djokovic.
"For me, the younger boys have not shown that they are particularly close," Ubitennis.com quoted the Scotsman as saying. "Obviously what happened at the US Open (Note: Dominic) Thiem did what he had to do to win the event, but when Novak (Note: Djokovic) didn't shoot a ball towards the line judge's throat if it had, it would be the same result (note as at the Australian Open 2021), I think. "
In fact, Dominic Thiem's triumph was the first victory of a member of the generation behind the big three. During the rainy season, in addition to the "Big Three", only Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro managed to achieve a major triumph. And now also the Austrian Dominic Thiem. However, without having to defeat Federer, Nadal or Djokovic on the way.