Former American tennis player Alexandra Stevenson has said that this year's Wimbledon and US Open prove that there is more to tennis nowadays than Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Federer and Nadal are indisputably two of the biggest names in tennis. The Spaniard and the Swiss player have 22 and 20 Grand Slam titles to their names respectively and have played some of the most legendary matches in the history of the sport.

However, after Federer retired in September 2022, Nadal ended up missing most of the 2023 season due to injury, meaning that neither was present on the ATP Tour for the first time in a long time. In their absence, their fellow Big Three member Novak Djokovic and young tennis star Carlos Alcaraz began filling in the gaps.

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Stevenson: there are so many exciting players today

The last two Grand Slams have had thrilling stakes as Djokovic aimed for his record 24th major title. He was stopped in his tracks at Wimbledon when 20-year-old Alcaraz emerged victorious from their five-set battle in the final. However, the 36-year-old went on to claim the record-equaling victory at the US Open.

In a recent interview on Match Point Canada, ESPN commentator Stevenson said that these events proved that there was more to tennis than a dominant Big Three or Four, with a handful of new players coming through.

"I think Wimbledon and US Open this year showed that there’s more to now Roger and Rafa and Andy Murray, I mean Andy Murray is still playing and he’s still exciting to watch but there is more to men’s tennis to watch than those three and then there is now a handful of guys that are exciting, may be even more than a handful may be there is six guys that could win Grand Slams right now, even though Novak is just dominating," she said.

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She also pointed out some players who did well at these majors as ones to keep an eye on.

"Medvedev, you have him, you have got Alcaraz, obviously, you got Novak, I could even throw in Rublev, even though he hasn’t gone past the quarters [...] So you have got, I mean Ben Shelton. He’s not ready to win a Grand Slam but who knows? Maybe the draw opens up and he could do it. So Frances Tiafoe," she continued.

The former World No. 18 added that she thinks Alcaraz has set men's singles tennis onto a new path.

"So I feel like this US Open was important for the tennis world again to see on the men’s side, there are lot of new characters and there are more and they are exciting and their personality and I feel like Alcaraz is leading the charge obviously and he has really invigorated the men’s game after people being upset that Roger and Rafa are not playing," she added.

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