Gone are the days of tennis that I watched growing up.
I was born in 1996, so I saw the glory days of the 2000s and 2010s in the world of tennis. In the women's game, you had the Williams sisters (Serena and Venus), Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, etc. The men featured Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic.
I'm not the biggest fan of watching tennis, but I do enjoy a good story in the sport from time to time. Roger Federer was my favorite growing up. Wimbledon always looks so cool.
On Sunday July 14th, 2024, I realized something: Gone are the days of the great tennis stars I grew up watching.
The 3rd-seeded Carlos Alcaraz from Spain beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets to win back-to-back Wimbledon titles. Granted, I know that Novak is now 37 years old, but that was the one guy on the court that I got scared could beat Federer. Straight sets to who? Exactly.
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All day, I've been questioning my mortality. Roger Federer is gone as injuries took their toll. The "Joker" from Serbia got punished on the national stage at Wimbledon. Rafael Nadal isn't dominating the French clay stuff anymore. Now, Serena is hosting the ESPYs as a has-been.
In the age of social media, the most relevant tennis news I can think of is the random Pickleball fad that popped up recently. I personally think that tennis could benefit from that weird trend, but Sunday's Wimbledon result was my punch in the gut of reality that I'm older than most NBA and NFL draft picks, and sports are changing fast. There's even a pitch clock in the MLB. And LeBron's son is playing for the Lakers.
Congrats to Carlos Alcaraz, but this doesn't hit the same as it used to.
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