Lost generation and other tales ATP tour data tells us
A bit of an introduction Fans of male tennis (organized within Association of Tennis Professionals , or ATP for short) have witnessed in the last decade-and-a-half an unprecedented domination of a small group of players, commonly named "Big Four" : Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray (some people expand this group to "Big Five" by including Stan Wawrinka). Collectively, they won 46 of the last 51 Grand Slam tournaments, as well as 97 of the last 116 Masters . For over 12 years they occupy top two spots of the world rankings. Their long rule over ATP tour has been well documented. That's not what I want to focus on in this piece. Big Four has arguably been a boon to fans but it has inhibited success of an entire next generation of tennis players, born around early 1990s. These players, the likes of Kei Nishikori (b. 1989), Milos Raonic (b. 1990) and Grigor Dimitrov (b. 1991), have become known as the "Lost generation" – a g...