ATP: The world domination of the Ü-30s

When will there be another Grand Slam winner younger than 30? The last nine majors, in any case, have won men of the best tennis age.

The US website “fivethirtyeight.com” has developed a mastery in deriving, interpreting and predicting trends from statistics. The main focus is on the field of politics, which has rarely been boring in the USA in recent years. Every now and then the sport also has its place, on selected occasions even tennis.

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The chosen occasion? Marin Cilics 30th birthday yesterday Friday. The attentive observers at fivethirtyeight have determined that all Grand Slam winners who are currently still active are at least 30 years old. Besides Cilic this group consists of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro.

In fact, the winners of the last nine (!) Major titles had already celebrated their 31st birthday. While Jelena Ostapenko and Naomi Osaka, two twenty-year-olds, had triumphed in the women’s singles. Garbine Muguruza was only 22 years older in her French Open success, Sloane Stephens two years older in New York last year.

Between 1925 and 2016, by the way, there was only one season in which there was no winner younger than 30: 1969, when Rod Laver won all four titles, first as a 30-year-old, then as a 31-year-old. Winners in the fourth decade of his life were there from time to time, so Andre Agassi at the age of 32 won his last Grand Slam.

Of course: The extraordinary generation with Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, who won the youngest eight majors, began to succeed in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York at an early age. But it would be nice and slow if an under-30-year-old could strike. Of the four defeated finalists this year, only Dominic Thiem fulfils this requirement after Cilics birthday.

Here are the last eight Grand Slam finals