Tennis has always been a sport close to my heart with all those childhood memories discussing about Edberg or Becker or Courier. Even when I had an argument with my dad about Graf or Seles, tennis was always growing in life. Players come , they dominate and they go. Tennis is also only game where the mental toughness is more required than any other game. One major reason for that is it is an individual sport and not a team sport where your team mates can cover for your flaws and make a better team. Tennis requires individual person just not physically fit, but also mentally strong and always prepare for all the different challenges life throws at you. e.g. Seles after a fan stabbing her in the back or Clijsters winning grand slam title after becoming a mom or Djokovic battling his health and improving his diet and then winning number of grand slam titles. One era ends and another begins. It is always hard to see old champions who we have started loving , lose and new players rising with totally different game. But that's life. Sun sets and sun rises. Probably we have to appreciate whatever we have in our hands rather than worrying about what we don't have.
Since I have watched tennis from childhood and have seen how generations change in tennis, it is always easy to form new alliances along the way. Courier, Sampras dominated for sometime , Agassi came back from retirement to dominate the sport, Graf was ever dominating before Hingis and Venus Williams arrived, Federer dominated in first decade of 2000 and then Nadal stopped him , as Nadal was becoming new favorite, Djokovic arrived from the shadows of both great players to dominate the sport. Now we are in 2014 and last grand slam of the year, for the first time in decade there is no Nadal, Djokovic or Federer in the final.
Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori are in US Open final after beating No. 1 and No. 2 seeds who were crowd favorites, specially after their thrilling 5-setter at Wimbledon 2014. Is this another new beginning? Marin Cilic with his strong first serve and volley game defeated Nishikori 6-3,6-3,6-3 to win his first grand slam title. Both are 25 and 24. With the new talent always coming to shore, old stalwarts are not forgotten , but just replaced with new champions. Dimitrov, Rionic , Nishikori and Cilic will dominate new few years. But we still have to see where Djokovic and Nadal go from here. They still have few more years left in them. Djokovic's marriage and arrival of his baby are definitely going to be top priority for him. It would be interesting to see him in Australian Open 2015 if he comes with same intensity of winning. There is some time to go for ATP World Championship, till then let's celebrate Marin Cilic's victory and Nishikori's resilience he showed during the last week of US Open.
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