|
In tennis, the term Big Four refers to the quartet of men's singles players Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. They reigned as the four best players in the world every season from 2008–2013. These players were considered dominant in terms of ranking and tournament victories, including Grand Slam tournaments and ATP Masters 1000 events, as well as the ATP World Tour Finals and Olympic Games through 2013. Federer was the first to come to prominence after winning Wimbledon in 2003 and established himself as the world No. 1 by the beginning of 2004. Nadal followed in 2005 after a French Open triumph including a win over Federer,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.thisissporta.com/mens-tennis-big-four-is-the-party-almost-over )〕 and they occupied the top two places in the ATP rankings for 211 consecutive weeks from July 2005 to August 2009. Djokovic, from 2007, and later Murray, from 2009, increasingly challenged Federer's and Nadal's dominance with seasonal consistency: Djokovic captured three of the four major tournaments in 2011, and in 2012 the quartet won one Major tournament apiece.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://bleacherreport.com/articles/993696-mens-tennis-the-big-one-the-big-two-the-big-three-or-the-big-four )〕 In 2011, Nadal declared that his and Federer's period of joint dominance had ended, owing to the ascent of other players, notably Djokovic and Murray.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Nadal Declares Dominance Over )〕 Since this time the term "Big Four", while used previously, became popular with the media and in tennis literature.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Can Anyone Upset The Big Four? )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Big four to slug it out for US Open )〕 The Big Four were a critical part of what has, since 2010, often been labelled a new "Golden Era" in tennis;〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Rod Laver's Top 10 From The Present )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest players of all time says Pat Cash )〕 that term is also applied to the mid-1970s to 1980s,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=WNYC-FM interview with Tennis Magazine )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title='Epic' vs. 'High Strung': Fighting over the Borg-McEnroe rivalry )〕 and the 1920s to the 1930s. Between them, they have won 39 of the last 43 men's major singles titles, from the 2005 French Open through to the 2015 US Open (the only times they haven't won being at the 2009 US Open, the 2014 Australian Open, the 2014 US Open and the 2015 French Open); they have also won 11 of the previous 13 World Tour Finals (previously Tennis Masters Cup), with Federer winning six and Djokovic winning five. They have regularly occupied the top four places in the year-end rankings between 2008 and 2013, with Murray being the only member not to have been ranked world No. 1, having reached a career high No. 2 on several occasions. Of the four, Federer leads with a record 17 Grand Slam tournament titles followed by Nadal (14), Djokovic (10) and Murray (2). Federer and Nadal have completed a Career Grand Slam by winning each of the four Majors at least once, with Nadal also winning a gold medal at 2008 Summer Olympics for a Career Golden Slam. Thus far Djokovic has not won the French Open. Murray has won neither the French Open nor the Australian Open, despite reaching the final four times in Melbourne, but won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Furthermore, at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, they are all in historic top 10 list, Nadal leads with a record 27 titles, followed by Djokovic (26), Federer (24), and Murray (11); while at ATP World Tour Finals, Federer has won 6 and Djokovic has won 5, with a record 4 consecutive from 2012 to 2015. All four players have also played key roles in leading their countries to success in the Davis Cup, including in Djokovic's and Federer's case with Serbia (2010) and Switzerland (2014) winning the competition for the first time, and in Murray's case, ending a drought of 79 years for Great Britain in 2015. 〔http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/murray-goffin-davis-cup-final-2015-sunday〕 ==History== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Big Four (tennis)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|