. As for the other two, Nadal made a brief visit to Paris, three weeks after the birth of his first child, but fell in the first round to unheralded American Tommy Paul. The most imposing member of the group is still Djokovic – at least, when he is not ruling himself out of events because of his anti-vaxx policy on Covid.){kind=link}
Danish 19-year-old’s victory over Novak Djokovic to win the Paris Masters may finally herald a new dawn that sweeps ancien regime away
“He is like a boxer with an uppercut,” said Holger Rune’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou on Sunday night, after his 19-year-old charge had completed one of the season’s most dramatic upsets. “He can use it at any time.”
Mouratoglou was talking about the way that Rune – an athletic and baby-faced Dane – can abruptly inject violence into a rally that is apparently going nowhere. “His pace is pom, pom, pom, and then pom – he speeds up all of a sudden.” This was the attribute that allowed Rune to outhit Novak Djokovic – still the world’s most feared player at 35 – in Sunday’s final of the Paris Masters.
Rune’s 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 comeback win resonated around the sport like the tocsin that announced the dawn of the French Revolution. Because the ancien regime – that group of elite players that was once known as the Big Four – seem in ever-greater danger of being swept away.
Two of the legendary Four – Roger Federer and Andy Murray – have already vacated their posts because their bodies eventually cried “enough” (even if Murray is still trying to defy medical science as he battles on with his metal hip).