Novak Djokovic - the last defender of the 8X generation
Before defeating Daniil Medvedev and winning the Rolex Paris Masters championship in early November 2021, Novak Djokovic had secured the year's No. 1 finish in the world. It was the seventh time Nole has done so, officially surpassing legend Pete Sampras in this statistic.
Looking back at 2021, the Serbian tennis player spent 12 very successful months, but could not reach the expectation of perfection. Accordingly, the 34-year-old tennis player is only 1 match away from the "Golden Slam" year (winning all 4 Grand Slam titles), but he collapsed in the final against Medvedev.
Nole's two other sad failures were at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics - losing to Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals and then losing to Pablo Busta in the bronze medal match, and once again falling to Zverev in the ATP Finals semi-finals.
However, those failures are unlikely to erase what he has achieved with the records he has created. In addition to finishing the year as world No. 1 for the 7th time, he also surpassed Roger Federer in the most weeks at the top of the ATP rankings, surpassing his own record and equaling Rafael Nadal's 36 Masters 1000 titles, catching Federer and Nadal in Grand Slam titles (20), Federer in the number of finals in major tournaments (31) and surpassing the Swiss Express in the number of wins (224) against players in the world's Top 10.
At the age of 34, Djokovic will continue to fight to keep his position for a while, but he must be feeling more lonely in the fight against time, against the new generation of world tennis. He has worked with Federer and Nadal to create a triangle that symbolizes victory and competition for more than a decade. No one trampled between them.
However, Federer's time was so limitate that he was no longer able to maintain his fitness and competitiveness in his 40s. The Swiss legend is considered the "Lionel Messi of world tennis" and is still aiming to return next year after surgery, however, most experts believe that it will be difficult for him to compete with youthful energy.
Similarly, although Nadal is 5 years younger than Federer, with his physically demanding playing style, the Spanish legend is also more affected by injuries. Nadal has only played in seven tournaments in a year, winning in Barcelona and Rome. In other tournaments, Nadal lost to very young players such as Stefanos Tsitsipas ( Australian Open), Monte-Carlo Masters (Andrey Rublev), Madrid Open (Zverev), City Open (Lloyd Harris). In addition, there was the defeat to Djokovic in the Rolland Garros semi-finals.
Those problems caused Federer to fall out of the Top 10 FedEx ATP Rankings by the end of 2021, while Nadal fell to 6th. That is why experts call Djokovic the last defender of the 8X generation in the fight against the younger generation.
A wave of talented and aspirational young people
Standing from a "high" look down, Djokovic may... feel cold when the opponents behind are all very young. Statistics show that for the first time since 1995, 8 players under 25 have entered the Top 10 at the end of the year, 4 of whom are in the Top 5. Medvedev (25 years old) and Zverev 24. have won against Nole this year. The remaining names are Tsitsipas, 23, Rublev 24, Matteo Berrettini 25, Casper Ruud 22, Hubert Hurkacz 24, Jannik Sinner (20).
Not only in the Top 10, below are young stars who are "surrounding" Federer and are ready to remove him from the Top 20 in the near future, such as Felix Auger-Aliassime 20, Denis Shapovalov 22, Cristian Garin 25, Cameron Norrie 26.
They have created greater challenges than players entering their prime such as Pablo Carreno Busta 30, Aslan Karatsev 28, Dominic Thiem, Diego Schwartzman 29.
Not stopping there, it is impossible not to mention the U21 generation that made a strong impression at the ATP NextGen Finals 2021 led by Carlos Alcaraz with the championship convincingly won despite being only 18 years old. Together with Alcaraz - who has climbed to 32nd place in the world, are Sebastian Korda (21 years old, 39 years old in the world), Jenson Brooskby (21, 56), Lorenco Musetti (19, 58)....
They have a long way to go to overthrow Djokovic, but it can be said that this young wave will bring new, exciting and innovative things to world tennis from 2022. Not only do they make seniors feel secure, they can also create a large-scale war instead of focusing on just a few names like in the last era.
It should also be added that in addition to men's tennis, women's tennis also witnessed the impressive rise of Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez - 2 tennis players who reached the US Open final when they were only 19 years old.
