Since 2004, the Grand Slams have been ruled by five players and those five players are Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray. They have clinched 48 of them. In January, Federer claimed the Australian, but after that, the ATP Tour saw the Juan Martin Del Potro re-emergence, while John Isner claimed his first Masters 1000 title in Miami event.
With the rise to fame of Alexander Zverev over the period of 18 months as well as the constant progress of Nick Kyrgios, now the tennis looks like to be in a healthy state. Annacone now admits that the younger players coming to tennis now feel they have a chance to win when they don’t have to play against Nadal or Federer in a Grand Slam event.
Annacone said in an interview “The top four great guys —you can throw Stan Wawrinka in there. All of them have been extremely dominant in the Masters and majors for so long. If you have a couple of them who aren’t there, it creates chances. “And now the boys are starting to see that ‘Father Time’ is wrestling with Rafa and Roger a bit. “So the next tier players are telling themselves, ‘Hey, we can get there! Now we don’t have to beat Novak, Rafa and Roger in the same tournament’.”
And according to Annacone this is the time for Isner likes to capitalize when the ‘Big Four’ are not involved in a tournament. He further added that: “All the guys at the top are a little vulnerable; it is an exciting time for the veteran players Sam Querrey and like John.
“And it is also exciting for the younger guys that are coming up from behind, they see the possibilities now.