No Big 3 Member in a Grand Slam Final in 2025, a First in Over 20 Years

© AFP

Adrien Guyot

le 06/09/2025 à 12h27

1 min to read

Alcaraz Djokovic Federer Nadal Sinner

For the third consecutive Grand Slam tournament, the final will feature Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. The two have clearly taken over from the famous Big 3—Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic—who dominated tennis for more than two decades.

Now, the Swiss and the Spaniard are retired, and the Serb is the last survivor of that golden era of tennis. Still performing at 38, the record holder for the most men's Grand Slam titles (24) has reached the semifinals of every Grand Slam this season, though he has not made it to a final.

For the second consecutive season, Djokovic has ended two Major seasons without a title, a first for him since 2009–2010. This undoubtedly signals the end of an era in tennis.

Indeed, this year, for the first time since the 2002 season, no player from the Big 3 has reached a Grand Slam final. As the X (formerly Twitter) account Jeu, Set et Maths points out, Carlos Alcaraz had not even been born yet at that time.

It was in 2003 that Roger Federer began to dominate the tennis world, including in Grand Slams, before the emergence of Rafael Nadal a few years later and the start of his dominance, particularly at Roland Garros, where he won his first Major in 2005.