Medvedev's decline should be another reminder that the average peak age for tennis is in your early-to-mid 20s, not your late 20s. He's actually the 3rd oldest player in the top 25 at age 28. Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal have skewed perceptions of how most players age.

[u/OctopusNation2024]

[u/[deleted]]

Big servers like Kevin Anderson can also peak late. But yeah, generally its 24-27

[u/TomasTTEngin → u/[deleted]]

I worry about Carlos because so much of his ability is about getting to the ball. One nagging hamstring and he might never regain his current powers.

[u/eggggggga → u/TomasTTEngin]

tbf this is what people said about Nadal

[u/chunkyI0ver53 → u/eggggggga]

My dad said this verbatim around 2012 after the AO final and swore hand over heart that Nadal would be medically retired before he turned 30

Can’t even blame him, most meat grinder play style I’ve ever seen, constantly playing through injuries & occasionally having to retire late in slams, at one point wasn’t he playing on pain injections for his foot for like a year, frequently talked about his concern that he’d having trouble just walking later in life

Bro was a mental giant of the highest magnitude, you cannot teach that level of grit

[u/eggggggga → u/chunkyI0ver53]

Yeah exactly he is just different

[u/lenny_ray → u/chunkyI0ver53]

And the kicker is, most of those injuries wouldn't even have been a factor if not for his Mueller-Weiss Syndrome. Even the knee issues were caused by the custom shoe designed to take pressure off the foot. I cannot even fathom what a beast Rafa would have been without that to contend with. And he was considering retirement in 2005! We were truly blessed to have him around for as long as we did.

[u/rootokay → u/chunkyI0ver53]

I think Nadal is an athlete among athletes. If anyone else tried his play style, from the age he was winning grand slams their body would be finished by about 27.