20+ years of tennis ended today (goodbye Fed, Serena, Murray and Nadal)... It's the Djokovic show from here on in...

 

You read that right, a 6-0 set inflicted on Federer, the man who has won the most Wimbledon singles titles (of course the great Navratilova holds the all time record with 9 singles titles), and who has not lost here in straight sets since 2002. This simply marks the last domino to fall of the greats leaving the stage with a whimper, rather than a bang.

Let's recap:

• Nadal didn't even play the tournament this year. He felt he needed more time to recuperate after a full clay court season and as such withdrew both from Wimbledon and the Olympics in order to "focus on looking at the mid and long term." Of course that is sensible, but with Djokovic one win away from his Major total, London being a short train ride away from Paris, this does strike me as a little strange. Not to mention that Novak beat him in Paris less than a month ago, it does seem that the Nadal challenge is slowly coming to an end;
• Andy Murray who is often described as a member of the big 4 in men's tennis had a great moment at Wimbledon this year by coming back to win the final two sets of his second round match. However his 3rd round straight sets defeat to Shapovalov didn't inspire much confidence. Now to be fair, with Shapo's run to the semi's this year it doesn't seem like such a bad defeat, but the manner in which it occurred, especially against a young buck which Murray has made it clear he is intent on holding back as long as possible, was the thing that made it more real, in terms of his ability to continue playing much longer;
• Federer just bowed out of Wimbledon in the most striking way. A quarter final is nothing to sneeze at of course, but a straight sets drubbing (as it included a 6-0 set) is no the way anyone would have expected him to go out. His press conference was a sad affair. For someone who is normally so positive and able to get over defeats as well as anyone on tour, this didn't fill me with a lot of confidence as to what his future holds (he has to make a decision on the Olympics quite soon and I would say it's a less than 50% chance he makes the trip to Tokyo);
• Serena got bounced in the first round, not even completing one set. Her unfortunate slip led to an injury which prevented her from competing any further. Although she has performed admirably at the majors since winning her last one, reaching 4 finals since then and a few more semis as well, she has lost each of those in straight sets and has not been much of a factor at the majors this year (although she did make the Australian Open semis but lost in straight sets to Naomi Osaka).

Is this the last we see of these great champs? I think that Nadal will obviously have a bit more left in him and will certainly look to compete at the French Open next year, there is a great chance that Andy Murray, Serena and Federer will say goodbye after the last major of this season. 

That basically sets up Novak for a run to the majors record of 21 (or more) in addition to all of the other records he continues amass. The most wins at each major, the most quarters, semis, finals appearances, etc... We have a lot of great young bucks coming up through the ranks (Shapo, FAA, Tsisipas, Zverev, etc...) who will try their best to make inroads, but it seems like the freight train will keep on rolling for quite some time.