Big Four, Big Five, Big One… Men’s tennis has been dictated by dominance from a limited number of players over the past decade ever since Roger Federer shot to fame up until Novak Djokovic’s current silverware spree.
As we enter the opening grand slam of 2016, Djokovic looks to have separated himself from the lot, while Stan Wawrinka has managed to include himself in the mix, that it has become tougher to use the term ‘Big Four’ (associated with Federer, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray) when referring to the top men in the field.
In the end, does it really matter to the players how they are grouped or referred to?
“Is your name ‘Big Four’. ‘Big One’ is your name, not my name,” Nadal told a member of the media on Saturday ahead of his opening round against Fernando Verdasco, scheduled for Tuesday.
“I really don’t care much about it. Just the only thing that is true, is Novak is playing at a better level than the rest of the players now. That’s obvious, no? The way he’s playing, it’s difficult to see him losing matches. Just can congratulate him for having made that happen.”
Federer is ranked and seeded No3 in Melbourne and is the one man to have beaten Djokovic more than once in 2015. The Swiss defeated Djokovic three times last season, but all of them came in best-of-three matches.
In the same year, Djokovic got the better of Federer five times, including two grand slam finals.
Does Federer feel that his triumphs over the Serb last season nullify the idea of a ‘Big One’?
“It completely depends what you’re looking at. If you’re looking at his season, he was the most dominant player by far last year. Then if you look at just who won the slams and the Masters 1000s, doesn’t hold truth, because Stan won the French. Nobody else won a slam other than him and Novak. So it completely depends on how you look at it. Who’s had the most success? The top five guys really, with Stan, you know, Murray, myself, Novak and Rafa,” explained Federer, who faces Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in an opening round night match on Rod Laver Arena Sunday.
“Now the rankings are back to more normal again after Rafa’s worked his way back up. I don’t think Rafa, myself, we personally look at the rankings very much, check it out all the time, care too much, to be quite honest, after being world No1. I understand some people do. It’s helpful in the seedings at times. But for us to lose quarter, semis, finals, it doesn’t matter, it’s still a loss, because we’re looking at higher goals, Rafa and myself. Same as Novak.
“I still think the same guys are playing very well. But, of course, Novak deserves like a little star next to his name right now because he’s been doing extremely well. Same for Stan really. Hasn’t been said, he’s won slams the last couple seasons and he’s going into a third season where he’s maybe going to win a slam.”
