Wimbledon 2025: Older players shine but youth eventually triumphs

Mint

12-07-2025

Tennis, it has sometimes been said, has skipped a generation. The reference is usually to men's tennis, which has transitioned somehow seamlessly from the improbable longevity of the fabled Big Three—Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal (who retired in their late thirties) and Novak Djokovic (who is still playing)—to the precocity and power of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Wimbledon this year seemed a docudrama that showcased this theory in not only the men's game, but also the women's. Older players, some well into their thirties, shone but eventually youth triumphed.
The most memorable women's match till the last weekend was the quarterfinal between the 37-year-old German, Laura Siegemund, a doubles specialist, and the top seed Aryna Sabalenka. Siegemund mixed up her game, alternating sliced forehands with forays to the net, drop shots with the occasional lob. This is the bread and butter of tennis in doubles but her powerful opponent seemed so befuddled for much of the match that it seemed like Siegemund was conducting a multiple-choice exam. For much of the match, Belarussian Sabalenka, who serves huge serves and backs them up with the heaviest groundstrokes in women's tennis, looked like she was in danger of flunking. She eventually resorted to using sliced forehands as well as her heavy groundstrokes and rebounding from losing her serve early in the final set to overcome an opponent a decade older than her, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, meanwhile, who were once thought of as successors to the Big Three, carried on their equivalent of an early midlife crisis. The three—aged 29, 28 and 26 respectively—crashed out in the first round.
Motherhood has been another theme of the British grasscourt summer. Another 37-year-old German, Tatjana Maria, an unheralded mother of two, won the prestigious warm-up before Wimbledon at Queen's Club.
At Wimbledon, it was the turn of the Swiss veteran Belinda Bencic, just back from maternity leave, to upset the seventh seed Mirra Andreeva, who many had tipped to win the tournament as the second week began. Instead, Bencic blunted Andreeva's superior power game with slices and slow balls in an otherwise uninspiring quarterfinal. From the sidelines, Andreeva's coach, Conchita Martinez called on Andreeva to 'Be brave." The exhortation was intended to get her charge to go for winners and not be drawn into the spider's web Bencic was weaving around her. Andreeva heeded the call but ended up committing more errors as she tried to impose her faster pace on the game. She lost in two tiebreak sets, 6-7, 6-7, after not having dropped a set to get through the first four rounds.
Equally mystifying but more predictable was the continued downward trajectory of the career of Tsitsipas. The Greek was once considered a probable successor to the Big 3 after beating Federer at the Australian Open and being a finalist at both the French Open and the Australian Open. This Wimbledon will mark a low point. He withdrew after losing the first two sets of his first round match. But, worse was to come. Tsitsipas' new coach, Goran Ivanisevic, 2001 Wimbledon champion and a long-time coach of Djokovic, criticised Tsitsipas after his loss at Wimbledon as the most 'unprepared player" he had ever seen and declared he was three times fitter than Tsitsipas, despite being decades older.
Also in danger of being labelled a serial underperformer is Zverev, who lost in the first round on Centre Court to Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, who was braver on the big points. Unlike Tsitsipas and Zverev, Medvedev has a single Grand Slam to his name—the US Open in 2021 where he beat Djokovic. But he went out in the first round of the French Open this year and at Wimbledon, and looks set to fall out of the top 10 next week after the points from Wimbledon are added to the men's rankings.
The surprising outperformers in the men's tournament were well into their thirties. The first match on Centre Court on the opening Monday is, for the most part, a ceremonial ritual: the defending champion takes the court to loud cheers and usually wins in straight sets. This year, 38-year-old Favio Fognini pushed Alcaraz to five sets and then brought forward his retirement from tennis, originally expected later this year. After that see-sawing match and the standing ovation he received at the end on Centre Court, Fognini decided that this was the best way to say goodbye to tennis. The moment was so full of pathos that it seemed scripted by the gods.
The tabloid press had anointed Jack Draper, the British number 4 seed, one of the prime contenders for a title. His form at Indian Wells, part of the so-called spring slam in the first half of the year, and since has justified his ranking. At Wimbledon, however, he ran into the giant Croatian, Marin Cilic, whose big serves followed up by whipping forehand winners can be an intimidating combination. Despite the wide gap in their rankings and the fact that Cilic at 36 is 13 years older than Draper, the outcome of the four-set second round match never seemed in doubt. The Croatian, a former Wimbledon finalist, looked more at home at Wimbledon than the Englishman.
At this almost excessively sunny and warm Wimbledon, the ghosts who authored Greek tragedies seemed among the audience on Monday evening as Sinner went on court against Grigor Dimitrov. When he first burst onto the tennis scene, the 34-year-old Bulgarian's nickname was the baby Fed, a nod to his similarly elegant play and stylish single handed backhand. The match up between Sinner and Dimitrov seemed to pit cannons on one side of the battlefield against an archer on the other.
Yet Dimitrov's arrows seemed to find the target again and again and appeared to have the magical qualities needed to defuse Sinner's explosive power. His backhand slice moved the number one seed around the court and skidded low on the grass. Dimitrov unleashed cannons of his own, serving 10 to 15 mph above his normal speed. With throaty crowd support, the Bulgarian was soon two sets to love up. At 2-2 in the third set, however, disaster struck. After unleashing yet another huge serve, Dimitrov sank to the ground writhing in pain from a pectoral muscle pull. Sinner was quickly by his side and helped him to his chair. After a timeout for treatment, Dimitrov returned to the court in tears to retire. One of Wimbledon's perennially popular stars may never again get that close to the semifinals.
Injury played a part in Sinner's semifinal with Djokovic. The Serbian looked slow from the start, having suffered a bad fall in his four-set quarterfinal. He lost in straight sets. But for his serve, the match would have been a rout. It may be the last time we see Djokovic in a Wimbledon semifinal. 'I guess playing best of five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically. I reach the semis of every Slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or Alcaraz. These guys are fit, young, sharp," a reflective Djokovic said afterward. 'I feel like I'm going into the match with the tank half-empty."
In other words, wily cunning and experience may have its moments, but at Grand Slams in 2025 youth has its way in the end. Of the four finalists in the men's and women's singles, Iga Swiatek, chasing her first Wimbledon final is 24. And, Alcaraz, the youngest at 22, remains the picture of calm confidence as he eyes his third consecutive Wimbledon. The younger generation is firmly in charge.
Rahul Jacob is a Mint columnist.