Tennis is lastly seeing the tip of the ‘golden era’ of the Big Three and the Williams sisters following Rafael Nadal’s newest harm replace. The Spaniard pulled out of the French Open and admitted that 2024 would probably be his closing yr on the tour throughout a press convention on Thursday. It comes as Novak Djokovic confessed {that a} new technology of gamers had already come to the forefront following his Rome loss to Holger Rune.

Nadal has develop into the newest participant to debate his retirement simply months after Roger Federer and Serena Williams each ended their respective careers inside weeks of each other. The ‘changing of the guard’ is a standard trope in tennis, but it surely nicely and really seems to be occurring as among the sport’s best champions grasp up their rackets.

While Djokovic continues to win titles and fend off among the rising younger stars, the Serb himself admitted {that a} new technology had already arrived when he suffered his second profession defeat to 20-year-old Rune. “Yeah, obviously, a new generation is here already,” he stated after a 6-2 4-6 6-2 loss.

Currently sitting at No 1 within the rankings, the Serb can be dethroned come Monday - on what's his thirty sixth birthday - as Carlos Alcaraz will return to the highest. Giving his evaluation of the sport, Djokovic stated the long-awaited generational shift was lastly occurring.

“I mean, Alcaraz is No 1 in the world from Monday. Obviously he's playing amazing tennis. I think it's also good for our sport that we have new faces, new guys coming up. It's normal,” he continued.

“We've been saying this for years, that we can expect it to come, that moment to come when you have kind of shift of generations. I'm personally still trying to hang in there with all of them. I'm happy with - of course, very happy with - my career so far. I still have the hunger to keep going. Let's see how far I'm going to play.”

As Djokovic questioned how lengthy he would maintain competing with the younger stars, his long-time rival was placing retirement plans in place. During a press convention on Thursday, Nadal said he would stop tennis for several months to provide himself the very best likelihood of a pain-free farewell in 2024.

“That would be my objective, to try to stop to face the last year of my sports career with the guarantees of being able to enjoy it,” he stated, including: “I want to play in 2024, which should be the last year of my career. I want to be able to enjoy it and to say goodbye to tournaments that I want.”

The upcoming French Open will mark the primary that Nadal has missed solely since making his debut in 2005. And it is going to be a style of the brand new regular on the tennis circuit, as the sunshine of the game’s largest stars begins to exit. 

Djokovic would be the final remaining member of the Big Three on the ATP circuit if Nadal’s plans to retire in 2024 come to fruition. And Venus Williams is presently within the midst of a prolonged layoff after getting injured in January.

But as tennis faces the grim actuality that these one-in-a-lifetime champions are beginning to name it a day, there are many promising younger stars who will maintain thrilling followers for years to come back. As Nadal himself stated on Thursday - “Players stay for a while and they leave, tournaments stay forever.”