Final moments of the Novak Djokovic era of dominance were hard to identify

As Novak Djokovic hoisted his arms aloft to toast yet another ATP Finals win in Turin last November, it didn’t feel like the end of his era of dominance.

At the age of 36, the most successful tennis player of all-time had just seen off his latest rival in a one-sided final that put Jannik Sinner firmly in his place after he dared to threaten Djokovic’s aura of invincibility with a win against the world No 1 in the group stages of the tournament.

The win for the Serbian superstar completed a year that saw him win three more Grand Slam titles and dominate the world No 1 ranking once again.

That was a little over three months ago, yet the tennis world feels very different now.

Sinner bounced back from that defeat to beat Djokovic in Turin to beat him in the Davis Cup semi-finals and then inflicted a crushing defeat on the 10-time Australian Open champion to end his reign as the undisputed king of Melbourne in a hugely significant semi-final in January.

Since then, Djokovic has only played two matches and in the second of those, he lost to the unheralded Italian Luka Nardi in a match that offered up real signs that Djokovic’s superpowers are beginning to drain away.

He openly admits his desire to compete in tournaments other than Grand Slams is waning, with his decision to pull out of the Miami Open and focus on spending more time with his family a statement that confirmed he is already looking to life after tennis.

It’s hardly surprising that the player who has ended the debate over who is the greatest player of all-time statistically is struggling to add to his records that may never be broken, but there have to be doubts over whether Djokovic can retain his match sharpness at this stage of his career playing a schedule that may only see him play a handful of matches before the French Open in June.

While Djokovic is enjoying time away from tennis, the sport he has dominated for so long appears to be moving on without him, as Carlos Alcaraz has become the centre of attention at this week’s Miami Open, with crowds flocking to watch the Spanish superstar in full flow.

Soccer superstar Neymar and basketball giant Jimmy Butler were the latest sporting giants who came to see Alcaraz in action as he beat Gael Monfils on Monday evening, with tennis fans around the world hoping the top seed has a chance to play another match against Sinner in the Miami final this weekend.

For so long, we have questioned and fretted over how tennis will cope when Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic make their exit, but that concern has long since been erased.

Icons of that magnitude will always be missed, but Alcaraz has slipped neatly into their slipstream as the new A-lister in the men’s game and Sinner may not be far behind.

 

It could be argued that the presence of new faces at the top of the men’s game is welcome after two decades of almost total dominance by three wonderful giants of the sport who took tennis to the next level.

What comes next may well transform the tennis ecosystem beyond recognition as change is coming with Saudi Arabian investors proposing a whole new tennis tour and the Grand Slam tournaments joining forces to offer a rival, alternative tennis calendar.

That new era will probably arrive after Djokovic hangs up his rackets for the last time and while his return for the European clay court swing will add a huge sprinkling of stardust to the narrative, the harsh reality is that tennis is no longer reliant on their biggest name to drive interest.

Djokovic may well retain his French Open title in June and he will be favourite to win a record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title a few weeks later, but we are now just a couple of big Grand Slam defeats away from declaring the Djokovic era has run its course.

Such a rapid conclusion to his story was impossible to imagine as he won his latest ATP Finals title in Turin, yet sporting empires that take years to build often tend to crash down in a rush when you least expect it.