The end of the tennis season always brings about a feeling of nostalgia as we look back on
what has been another riveting duel between the world’s best over the course of 2019. The
trophies have once again been shared out by Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic with the rest left to fight over any scraps accidentally dropped from the top table.
There is only one ATP World Tour event left to play and that is the Nitto ATP finals in
London. The big three will go in as the top three seeds just like they did when they first
started competing at this event in 2007. It’s hard to fathom that 12 years on from when they started appearing at this tournament nothing has really changed in terms of the pecking order in world tennis.
HERE IT IS!
The
singles draw for the 2019 #N
ittoATPFinals ? pic.twitter.com/gQBg6bnOr6— ATP Tour
(@atptour) Nov
ember 5, 2019
Although, this event did produce a young winner in Alexander Zverev last year, and the
question now is whether the German can lay down a marker and give the top trio something to think about over Christmas?
There may be a reason to believe he can actually go on and defend his title when you
consider that Djokovic and Federer have been drawn together and Nadal is fresh off an
abdominal injury that forced him to withdraw from the Paris Masters. The 22-year-old
doesn’t suffer from a shortage of confidence and would have been bullish about his chances
regardless of the shape that the big three are currently in.
Zverev’s opening game will be against Nadal but despite the Spaniard’s recent injury, the
German goes into the contest as the outsider. Indeed, Betzcenter has Nadal at short odds of 1/2 to get it done which, when you consider everything, is quite generous. At the end of the day, Zverev is the defending champion and in exceptionally good health.
The 22-year-old will look to make Nadal run by sending him to parts of the courts that will
require him to stretch his lower body and in doing so see how that abdominal strain is really holding up. Despite his young age, the German is a shrewd operator albeit with a tendency to run a bit hot under the collar at times.
London Calling??? @atptour pic.twitter.com/JdYTdvTAlv
— Alexander
Zverev (@AlexZverev)
October 30, 2019
Some might say those are the characteristics of a champion or at least a very determined
competitor. The dominance of the big three can’t last forever even if it currently feels like
they will never retire or lose their ability to win and carry on sharing the Grand Slams
amongst them.
The smart logic is that Alexander Zverev will be the chosen one who begins putting the big
three to the sword sooner or later. Should he be able to do so in London over the course of
the late autumn, some might say hope springs eternal for 2020 now that there is a new kid on the block ready to usher in the new dawn. It must be said though that there have been many false dawns and pretenders over the last 15 years that threatened to do the same as Zverev.
Something says that the big three won’t give up their shared throne just yet.
