Fed defeat kills talk of Golden Era

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Really that was quite a bad defeat for Federer; sure, he may well have won the 1st set and sneaked through but it's clear that he is a pale shadow of the man who amassed 16 Slams and dominated the game. Current Fed would probably be lucky to avoid 3 sets of baked goods against his former self; the old Federer would run this one into the ground. JWT said after the match that lots of players are improving, but that is simply illogical. The simpler explanation is that 30 year old Federer is way past it and that Andy Murray has been disorientated by years of close encounters with the top of the game. Rafa Nadal may already be slipping, but if not that point can't be too far away, not with his type of game.

Of course Federer is the clear #3. Miles clear of anyone else. Which really makes you shake your head about the absurd idea that we are in some kind of "Golden Era", as VIs in the media would have us believe. A Golden Era would have him down around #10, being piled on my young stars, but this isn't the case.

Clearly the competition has slipped just as Djokovic has made improvement, making him the stand out player by a distance, and good for him - he spent enough time waiting for the top boys to come back to him and he's worked on his game otherwise he'd be scrapping with, rather than lording it over, them.

I wonder when the game will pick up? There doesn't seem much around in the younger set, although one or two may make it interesting. However, my fear is that we stay in a situation where we have two oldies in the top 6 and a Federer unfit to lace the boots of his prime self a credible candidate for Slams.

I would definitely agree that the Federer/Nadal looks like it is now at a close. We are now moving into a new era and for it to develop it needs time before we leap in and shot what a weak era it is.

Nadal is past his peak and burnt out after years of heavy slogging/grinding, he's a bit like Hewitt except he had less serious injuriesthan Hewitt picked up. Saying that i still think he will continue some sort of command in the clay court season, which he just revels because of the feel of surface. But who will join DjokoGOAT? I would like to say Dolgopolov... (sigh) but i will be realist and go for Monfils, Raonic, Tomic and Gulbis (not DelPotro unfortunately...)

This has been a rather sloppy 2 weeks by the top players eventhough Djokovic won last week and is in the final again he hasn't looked that convincing. I think he has the tour a bit intimidated right now, he himself hasn't played that well after wimbeldon. Lucius, I think since about 06-07 the tour has gotten stronger, this year is a bit odd because all of sudden Fed and Nadal are both slumping, Roger it was expected but Nadal is kind of in free fall, we have to wait and see if he can get back some of his mojo.