Why are Men’s Tennis Champions Getting Older? (and the physics of topspin) The remarkable play of Roger Federer at age 37 has not been seen before by the current generation of fans. After not winning a slam for five years, he suddenly resurrected his career and has rolled to three slam titles in the last two years. At the same time, Rafael Nadal, now nearly 33, also added three more slam titles to his career haul. Just a few years ago, this sort of longevity seemed impossible. The likes of Borg, McEnroe, Wilander, and Edberg—who all had multi-slam winning, yearend-#1-ranking careers—won their last slams by age 24 to 26. When top stars like Lendl (29), Connors (31), Sampras (31), and Agassi (32), won their last slam titles, it seemed these were their last gasps before doddering into retirement. By the time Sampras retired it was assumed that a good career could be had by age 25, and the later 20’s were a period of decline, with only decrepitu...
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