British Tennis Forum

So as Zverev goes down to Djokovic we are left one again with a Grand Slam with no winner coming from the generation born in the 90s. 

Originally it seemed it would be a curse of players born between 1988 and 92 or so with the likes of Kei Nishikori, Raonic etc that would miss out on major honours because of the domination of the Big three (plus Murray, Stan and a sprinkling of others from the 80s)

However, it now seems like the entire decade of 90s born players are cursed, most losing their prime years to the big three (or four depending on your opinion), and the 97-99ers being overshadowed by Sinner and Alcaraz.

Now I realize, of course, that two 90s born male players have won a slam. Thiem, when Djokovic was kicked out of the US open and Medvedev two years ago. But as each year goes by the odds of the 90s generation adding to this haul goes down ever so slightly each time. Obviously, Sinner and Alcaraz wont win every slam for the next four or so years, but maybe Muscetti, Draper, Fils, Shelton etc will also step up into that next level. 

For comparison here is the numbers of slams won by each group of player born in a particular decade:

1950s- 37

1960s- 36

1970s- 42

1980s- 72

1990s- 2

2000- 7

So is it that the 1980s (my generation!) is a freak group of outstanding players? Is it that the 90s players are sandwiched by both great players from the 80s and 00s. Or is it that the 90s generation is just exceptionally poor?