For exactly 20 years, spread over three different decades, the count of Grand Slam wins was reserved almost exclusively for three tennis players.
Legends.
The three best in history.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic lived in their own gold bubble, leaving crumbs for the rest of the industry.
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This continued until Carlos Alquers arrived and burst the bubble.
Then Djokovic breathed life into a new one, until yesterday (Friday) the guy from the opposite block arrived - his name is Yannick Siner - and provided a statement as clear as the sun rising in the morning: there will be no more bubble.
Raise your hand everyone who bet on the Australian Championship final without Novak Djokovic or at least with Carlos Alquers.
Raise your hand anyone who bet that this is how the crazy semi finals in Melbourne will end.
do you lift
No?
of course not.
Because such a scenario, which would lead to such a finale, very few people could have predicted.
If you were to ask Djokovic, or any other tennis player, who is the last opponent he would like to face in the near future, Yannick Sinner's name would be thrown out without a second thought.
That's how it is that everyone already in the round knows and finally internalized yesterday regardless of the result of the upcoming final - this Italian is something special.
really special
Djokovic with an apron at the end of the semi-finals.
Surprise?, Photo: Reuters
Because beating the greatest tennis player of all once is a great achievement.
To beat him a second time in less than a month is wow.
But to beat him once more in two months - in the semi-finals of the Australian Championship - while presenting clean, relaxed, elegant and almost error-free tennis, is already a story for the grandchildren who will not be satisfied with a quick glance at their grandfather's trophy cabinet.
In sports or in any other field of life, for young people to be considered promising, in the beginning it is indeed enough to show sparks of talent, but the moment will come when they will also have to be winners.
Win.
Demonstrate confidence, stability, adherence to the goal and know how to look every opponent in the eye, no matter how big he is.
Siner's moment has long since arrived, and popped in to visit one more time.
"Of course, this is my biggest victory," Siner said after Friday's demolition of Djokovic, who played one of the weakest games of his career, and he also admitted it.
But the 4th ranked in the world knew how to stay with his feet on the ground.
"It means a lot that I beat Djokovic, but the tournament is not over, I haven't won yet."
an apron
Mesmerizing the viewers, photo: AFP
For the fresh apron, whose set he took the 1st ranked in the world was the first and the only one he lost so far in Australia, waiting in the final is perhaps the most exhausted tennis player at the moment.
However, go annoy someone who is tired, who, like a predator that has laid traps and hunted its opponents for the past two weeks, is just waiting for its next prey.
The young Italian, who also led his team to win the Davis Cup, will meet Danil Medvedev, ranked 3rd in the world, who twice came back from two sets behind to win 2:3 in the tournament, and played another match of five long sets.
This will be his sixth Grand Slam final, having won only once in the previous five, losing twice to Djokovic and twice to Nadal.
Did someone say peak motivation to win a second major?
"If I want to win in the final, I have to raise my level to a completely different level," understands Medvedev, who although has a positive balance of 3:6 against his opponent, but lost to him in the last three meetings between them.
"I hope the experience will be an advantage for me, because physically I don't have it."
Weighing the dry data and looking at the trail of crushed opponents left behind by Siner in this championship, stopping his incredible momentum currently seems like a sequel to an impossible task.
And when he shows the best tennis in the tournament, even a second place won't stop the understanding from seeping in - the countdown has started again.
Danil Medvedev.
Will have to level up, Photo: Getty Images
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