I think these are all the instances in the last 25 years.
US Open
1999 Venus Williams, Serena Williams, LIndsay Davenport, Todd Martin, Andre Agassi
2000 Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras, Todd Martin
2002 Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi
2003 Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi
Wimbledon
1999 Lindsay Davenport, Alexandra Stevenson, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi
2000 Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi
French Open - none in last 25 years
Australian Open
2000 Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi
2003 Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi
Well, the Americans lost their finals in the U.S. Open. Jessica Pegula lost 5-7, 5-7. And Taylor Fritz lost 3-6, 4-6, 5-7. They were both very competitive and managed to break their opponents multiple times, but couldn’t hold serve when they needed to.
Aryna Sabalenka won the womens final; Jannik Sinner (Italy) won the mens final. They had both won the Australian Open earlier this year. They seem to prefer the hard courts.
After this final major of the year, we have three American women in the top 10, and four in the top 20: Jessica Pegula (3), Coco Gauff (6), Emma Navarro (8), and Danielle Collins (11). For the American men, we have one in the top 10, and five in the top 20: Taylor Fritz (7), Tommy Paul (13), Sebastion Korda (15), Frances Tiafoe (16), Ben Shelton (17). Good players, but it’s hard to win majors, or even masters.
With the conclusion of this US Open, it is the first time since 2003 that neither Djokovic, Nadal, nor Federer won a grand slam during the year. I am sure Nadal wants a last Hurrah at the French and Djokovic will try for one more to get to 25, but 2023 might be it for them at the grand slams.
I don’t want it to, but my interest is waning a bit without them. I realize now I’ve been following tennis with the big three active just about as long as I was before they came on the scene.
They’ve become tennis for me now.
I loved the American era of Sampras, Agassi, etc. I’m not sure post-big-3 what there will be to keep me going.
Connors/Borg/McEnroe to
Lendl/Becker/Wilander/Edberg to
Agassi/Sampras to
Big 3
It’s easy to forget how good the second tier guys were in some of those eras.
I’m excited to see the next chapter. I know my kid and her contemporaries are as well.
I watched Rafa lose to DiMinaur in Barcelona this year. 99% of the crowd was behind Nadal. My daughter couldn’t have cared less. She’s into Sinner, Alcaraz, Ruud, Arnaldi, Draper, etc.
Yeah, if Carlos Alcaraz has a couple other great competitors rise up against him, it will be good and I’ll be back in totally.
I just think we’ve been spoiled. I watched McEnroe from around 1985 or so. I was catching the end of him and Connors career mainly. I mean, they were competitive, but by the time I was 12(1990), they were wrapping up.
I was watching Sinner and Fritz trading forehands at about a zillion MPH and thinking if a 1984 John McEnroe could be competitive against those groundstrokes.
Grim thought. McEnroe would have been annihilated by Federer and Nadal, etc. I’m talking if early 80’s McEnroe took them on. Perhaps he could have equaled them if he grew up with the training and equipment they had.
Heh, just recalling that crazy serve of McEnroe’s, where his (singles) service stance was usually out by the first tram line. (hunkered down low, slowly flexing the head of his racket just above the ground.)