Fearsome foursome go to Australian Open aware the end could be near
Injuries and rise of a new generation threaten to expose Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray at the first slam of the year
The four greatest players in modern tennis – who between them have won more than £300m across 16 years – arrive in Melbourne this week aware that their days as a dominant entity are numbered, if not already history.
This could be Alexander Zverev’s time, or maybe the 2019 Australian Open will belong to Stefanos Tsitsipas or Daniil Medvedev. And Australians might even celebrate their first home slam winner since Mark Edmondson 43 years ago if young Alex de Minaur can continue to perform minor miracles. At 212 in the world, Edmondson was and remains the lowest-ranked slam champion of the open era; dreams do come true.