Tennis in Transition - French Open 2016

Tennis is in transition - a horrible term familiar across all sports which describes current players not being sufficiently replaced with fresh, younger players. 

We have now reached the semi-finals stage of the 2016 French Open and I have to suggest it has been one of the most forgettable slams in living memory. This is mainly due to the off-court news making the real headlines - Roger Federer announcing he would not be participating (the first such occurence in 16 years), and Rafael Nadal withdrawing through injury after a couple of matches. Roland Garros this year has been deprived of Federer's magic and Nadal's excitement. When you subtract these two kings of the sport from the equation, you quickly realise that tennis is left with the bare bones of survival. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are both exiting prime and entering veteran stage of careers, together with other top ten players such as Wawrinka, Berdych, Ferrer, Tsonga and Gasquet. 

It's not too different on the women's side as well. Serena is the veteran looking for a few more cherries on top of an almighty impressive cake, but there seems to be a dearth of world class opponents to challenge her, the same situation that Djokovic is facing now.

Tennis desperately needs Dominic Thiem and Garbine Muguruza to step up now!

Tennis needs new heroes to re-capture the imagination once more. Austrian, Dominic Thiem, will have broken into the top ten come Monday and is the most exciting prospect to appear out of the clay court season culminating with his shot at the world #1 Friday. Similarly, Spaniard, Garbine Muguruza has showed promising signs that she is developing into a formidable opponent to not only challenge Serena, but soon enough take over the mantle of world #1.

It is time for the young ones to show their worth. For Thiem and Muguruza, it's time to start making new history.

Muguruza Rising

Monday 26th January, 2015. 

Garbine Muguruza gave Serena Williams a scare in the 4th round of the Australian Open. I said during that match that we have a top young player here who will go on to win majors.

Garbine Muguruza was born in Venezuela and now lives in and represents Spain

A few months later she reached the Wimbledon final, losing out to Serena once more.

A year on and Muguruza has risen to #3 in the rankings at the age of just 23. At 6 feet tall she represents an intimidating figure who can mix force with finesse. She made a convincing start to her 2016 Aussie Open with a 6-0 6-4 win over Anna Kontaveit. 

I expect her to make the breakthrough with a maiden major sooner rather than later. There is only so much longer Serena can go on, and with no other dominant female on tour, Muguruza can certainly assert herself on the tour.

At 23, she is only going to get better. Major success is coming.