Chapter 626 A Possibility
Is the era of the “Big Four” really coming to an end?
Judging from the four Grand Slams, the dominance of the Big Four has indeed reached its lowest point in the past decade.
Australian Open Wawrinka, French Open Nadal, Wimbledon Djokovic, US Open Gao Wen, the four championship trophies finally belonged to four different players.
Interestingly, the last time such a situation occurred was not too long ago. It was two years ago, in 2012, when Djokovic won the Australian Open, Nadal won the French Open, Federer won the Wimbledon Open, and Murray won the US Open. This was also the year when the Big Four officially established their absolute dominance.
So, what does this mean? Does it mean another complete reshuffle?
Judging from the Masters, the Big Four are also facing severe challenges.
Djokovic in Indian Wells, Djokovic in Miami, Wawrinka in Monte Carlo, Nadal in Madrid, Djokovic in Rome, Tsonga in Montreal, Federer in Cincinnati, Federer in Madrid.
The last time a Masters champion fell to someone other than the Big Four was in 2012, in Paris, when Ferrer won the title.
And going back further, we have to go back to 2010, to Ljubicic in Indian Wells, Roddick in Miami, and Soderling in Paris.
It is obvious that Paris is undoubtedly the Masters where the Big Four have the weakest dominance.
If another dark horse emerges at this year's Paris Masters, then 2014 will be the year since 2010 when three of the nine Masters titles go to people other than the Big Four; coupled with the apparent loosening of the Grand Slams, perhaps the "Big Four" era is indeed beginning to decline.
Of course, paper analysis is just a bunch of data. In competitive sports, you still have to go out on the field to compete and the outcome is unpredictable.
But it is undeniable that 2014 was a magical year, but also a turbulent year, and any slight disturbance could trigger heated discussions.
On the one hand, Federer topped the Shanghai Masters, and there was a lot of buzz. It was obvious that the Big Four were still very competitive, and perhaps the Australian Open and the US Open were just accidents.
On the other hand, all eyes are focused on the Paris Masters, hoping that this tournament can point the way for the professional arena in the coming year.
Witnessing the rise of legends, witnessing the peak showdown, witnessing the change of dynasties... Witnessing history is always the most interesting thing. It is also part of the excitement of competitive sports. It is also for this reason that when the latest world rankings are released, all eyes are focused on it——
Don’t forget that entering the European Indoor Hard Court Season also means that the battle to qualify for the year-end finals has officially entered the bloody stage.
The so-called year-end finals, as the name suggests, is the final "peak showdown" of the year.
Since 1970, the year-end finals have been held as scheduled in the first week of November every year. As the final battle of the entire season, the final battle is held on the top of the Forbidden City.
The year-end finals will be a best-of-three format with a total of eight seats divided into two groups.
First, a round-robin tournament will be held within the group to determine the top two teams that will advance to the semi-finals.
Afterwards, they will enter a single elimination tournament, through the semi-finals and finals, to determine the champion.
According to the ATP schedule, the level of the year-end finals is second only to the four Grand Slams, and its status is even higher than the Masters.
In terms of points, the champion points of the year-end finals are 900 points, but each victory in the group stage is worth 200 points. These points are all cumulative, that is to say, if you win the championship with all wins, you can win 1,500 points, which is higher than the 1,000 points of the Masters and lower than the 2,000 points of the Grand Slam.
In terms of prize money, the prize money for the year-end finals is calculated based on the number of games. First of all, as long as you can qualify for the finals, you can get 93,000 US dollars.
Then, the same applies to every game of the group stage, semi-finals, finals, and so on. If you play and win all the games, the cumulative prize money can be as high as 2.3 million US dollars, which is equivalent to the level of the four Grand Slams.
Of course, the most important thing is that the champion of the year-end finals is equivalent to the "leader of the martial arts world". Different from the year-end world ranking first, this championship trophy has more important significance.
For any player, winning a Grand Slam is a dream, and qualifying for the year-end finals and winning the championship is another dream.
So, how is the finalist list for the year-end finals drawn up? It's very simple. Based on the championship points ranking each year, the top eight players automatically qualify, and the ninth and tenth players are substitutes. If someone is injured and retires, they can be substitutes at any time.
This is also the reason why points and bonuses are calculated based on the number of battles.
However, the ATP also took other possibilities into consideration and added a special clause: if there is such a player that year who wins two Grand Slam trophies, but due to other reasons, his championship points are not able to enter the top eight, then he will be shortlisted for the year-end finals as the eighth player; and the player who originally ranked eighth in the championship points will serve as a substitute.
However, so far, such a situation has never occurred in ATP.
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As for the WTA, the rule that was once established was that the champions of the four Grand Slams would be directly shortlisted, and then the shortlisted list would be compiled based on the championship points ranking each year.
Later they found that this made the situation very chaotic:
Because the four Grand Slam champions are so prone to upsets, the year-end finals roster is unlikely to reflect the element of "the most stable and outstanding performance throughout the year". The quality is not good enough, and the presence of Serena Williams, who is not ranked high but is always able to make a comeback and win the championship, always catches people off guard.
As a result, the WTA also revised the qualifying rules, which are now basically consistent with the ATP.
According to the annual schedule, September is the Asian season, and October is the European indoor hard court season. The two regional seasons are four weeks and three weeks respectively. Then, after a week of rest and adjustment, the year-end finals will sound the horn -
The battle for the championship points ranking will end until the last Masters Tournament of the year, which is the Paris Masters.
Therefore, after entering the Asian season, the weekly updates of the world rankings and championship rankings are particularly eye-catching, because changes may occur every week, and the results of each week's events may have a direct impact, just like the 100-meter sprint at the Olympics: entering the sprint stage, no matter whether it is the champion leading in front or other competitors following closely behind, everyone is doing their best.
This year, this is even more so.
From Grand Slams to Masters, the turmoil is felt in all directions. So, will the year-end finals also see new faces? On October 13, the latest ATP world rankings were officially announced. In an instant, the world's attention was focused on it, and the Chinese media could hardly contain their excitement, because for the first time in history, they realized that their players might also sprint for the year-end finals! What if! Just a hypothesis! If Gao Wen is shortlisted for the year-end finals, can this young player continue to bring surprises on the stage of Huashan Sword Contest? Just imagining it makes my blood boil. Who can refuse? (End of this chapter)