A Period of Upheaval?

[herios]

herios, I just can't agree with you that Ferrer's rise marked the end of the Big Four. Ferrer was never, not even close really, in the same category as the Big Four. For a few years Murray was the "best of the rest" until he won the US Open, then he became the "worst of the best" and we had a legit Big Four for a period of time. But Ferrer hasn't even really be the "best of the rest." He's been the most consistent of the second tier, but I've never seen him as a better player than Tsonga, Berdych, or Del Potro. In fact, at their very best, Ferrer is probably the inferior player.

No knock on David, of course.

El Dude
When I mention Ferrer got into the mix, I did not mean he was a sure candidate to win. But he was the one who on several occasions made SF in slams replacing one of the top 4, then he was the first to get into a GS final and win a masters other than the top 4, first time after 2010.
He ultimately broke into the top 4 ranking peaking at #3. You want to tell me that the top 4 domination was still intact when another player than them is ending the year ranked 3??
All his results were top 4 party crashing.
And at the end of the day what counts are results, not who is the superior player.

 

[Mastoor]

If we can judge the year by its beginning and that is AO, this will be terrible tennis season.

I hated this AO14 since very beginning, not only when Nole lost because on mens side I didn't see an interesting match until Fed demolished Tsonga. Neither after that I saw many interesting things.

I guess upheaval is what we should expect of this year. Top 2 players are obviously emotionally drained, burned out, it is unlikely to expect any incredible consistency from Fed and Murray or anyone else for that matter.

 

[TsarMatt]

If we can judge the year by its beginning and that is AO, this will be terrible tennis season.

I hated this AO14 since very beginning, not only when Nole lost because on mens side I didn't see an interesting match until Fed demolished Tsonga. Neither after that I saw many interesting things.

I guess upheaval is what we should expect of this year. Top 2 players are obviously emotionally drained, burned out, it is unlikely to expect any incredible consistency from Fed and Murray or anyone else for that matter.

As it is true there weren't many interesting matches on RLA or Hisense, there were a lot of other highly entertaining encounters, especially Kyrgios vs. Parie which had an amazing crowd and a real magnetic atmosphere.

 

[TsarMatt]

It will be an interesting year, for sure. In terms of Grand Slams, I can still see the Big 4 having a predominate ascendancy over it. But hopefully 2014 will sort of break the monopoly Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Murray have had over the Master 1000s, and we'll start to see guys like Stan, Del Potro, Berdych, Raonic, Nishikori, Dimitrov, Tsonga, and various others be in contention for these titles. It's amazing to think that the two players who have a Grand Slam who are not the Big 4 since 2005, Del Potro and Stan, have not even won a Masters 1000 title. Maybe that will change. Let's hope so, at least for curiosity's sake.

Wimbledon last year saw a big upheaval, even though the top 2 seeds made the final on the men's side. This one seems to be proving a trend. We shall see.

Indeed. This is another reason why I love the (shamefully) short grass court season. Rosol, Darcis, Stakhovsky, Brown - all relatively obscure names that defeated top opposition in a visually pleasing fashion, bringing back the good old serve and volley and hitting that ball nice and flat.

To think there is not one Masters 1000 on the grass is just appalling.