Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men’s Tennis

An award-winning tennis writer tells the story of the end of one epic era in the sport, and the birth of another.

For more than two decades, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer collectively dominated men’s tennis. The ＂Big Three＂ swept aside generation after generation of young hopefuls for so long, it became difficult to envision what the game would even look like when they finally put down their racquets.

Then came 2024--the first year since 2002 that none of them won a major tournament--and a technicolor future was revealed. The Grand Slams were evenly divided by a pair of prodigies in their early twenties: the effervescent showman Carlos Alcaraz, whose seemingly infinite variety of shots won him the French Open and Wimbledon, and the relentlessly cool Jannik Sinner, whose power and precision secured him the Australian Open and US Open even amidst a doping controversy. Behind them, a slew of other contenders tried to muscle into the space left by the Big Three, only to watch the transcendentally gifted Alcaraz and Sinner swiftly installing their new regime. All the while, the old guard Novak Djokovic dug in his heels, winning an Olympic gold medal as he tried to delay their takeover.

Fans of elevated sports journalism won’t want to miss this debut by a writer on the rise. Punctuated with humor, brimming with insight, and rooted in a true fan’s love of the game, Changeover is Giri Nathan’s captivating primer to a loud new rivalry and the next decade of the sport.

Giri Nathan is a staff writer and cofounder of Defector Media. His writing has also appeared in publications including New York magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and The New Yorker. He is the senior correspondent at the tennis outlet The Second Serve, and a regular guest on tennis podcasts. In 2022, he received the Tom Perrotta Priza for Tennis Journalism. Follow him on X @GiriNathan for his latest stories.