Data check: With no non-European champ in the 2010s, a decade-wise look at men’s Grand Slam winners

That the 2010 decade of men’s tennis was dominated by the Big Three – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – is old news.

Their overwhelming presence is evident from their Grand Slam numbers in the last 10 years. Djokovic leads the pack winning 15 of his 16 Majors since his rejuvenated run in 2011 while reaching 23 finals. Nadal has 13 Slams from 19 finals while Federer – who won the first Major of the decade – has five from 10 finals.

It should be noted here that all three of them won their first Majors in the preceding decade: Federer at Wimbledon 2003, Nadal at French Open 2005 and Novak Djokovic at Australian Open 2008.

Andy Murray, the only other world No 1 in the decade and a member of the erstwhile Big Four, follows with three Slams from 10 finals along with Stan Wawrinka, who has a solid three out of four record in Major finals. The only other Major champion in the last 10 years is Marin Cilic, who won the 2014 US Open.

That’s it, six Grand Slam champions across 40 tournaments in 10 years.

As incredible as that sounds by itself, a look at decades and champions before this in the Open Era truly puts into perspective what a remarkable feat the Big Three have achieved in 2010s.

This is the first time in Open Era (which began in 1968) that there are no men’s singles Grand Slam champions from outside Europe.

The last non-European to win a Major was Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro who won the 2009 US Open – the last Slam of the last decade. The United States of America, which boasts of most male Grand Slam winners in the Open Era at 52, last had a male champion back in 2003, when Andy Roddick won the US Open. Nobody from Australia (Oceania) has a won a men’s singles title Lleyton Hewitt won Wimbledon 2002.

While there have been a few Major finalists from outside Europe in the last few years – South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, Canada’s Milos Raonic, Japan’s Kei Nishikori and del Potro – none of them have managed to win.

* Only 39 Slams were played in this decade as Australian Open’s date was changed in 1986
** Johan Kriek won his first Major as a South African but became an American citizen before he won his second in 1982
*** There was two Australian Open tournaments held in 77, with different champions, hence there were 41 Majors

This is also fewest number of individual Major winners, by a fair margin, in the Open era. There were 15 different Slam champions in the 2000s and 16 in the 1990s. This is how phenomenal the golden era, as the time of the Big Three has come to be called, of men’s tennis has been.

At no other time in the Open Era of men’s tennis has a set of players, or indeed a continent, dominated in this complete a manner. Even when Pete Sampras won 12 Majors in the 1990s and no one seemed close to him, the base of the pyramid was strong with eight one-time winners four men with two titles each. Even when Federer stormed his way to 15 Majors in seven years of the next decade, there were eight one-time winners at least.

But in this decade, it has all changed with the Grand Slam trophies becoming the stronghold of few, even as they aged.

Federer (38), Nadal (33), Djokovic (32), are winning Grand Slams well into their 30s, an age traditionally considered the end of a tennis player’s career. But as things stand, there is not a single men’s champion in the 20s.

The last time we saw young players breakthrough in Major finals was in 2000s, when a teenage Nadal won the French Open in his first Major final as Hewitt, Safin, Djokovic and del Potro won titles at 20 while Roddick became a Slam champion at 21. A time when Oceania, North and South America produced winners and were close to Europe, if not ahead.

Here’s a look at all the Grand Slam champions from each decade before this and their countries.

* Johan Kriek won his first Major as a South African but became an American citizen before he won his second in 1982

Interestingly, several of the one-time Slam champions came from the clay courts of Roland Garros, an avenue that is now all but shut with one man winning 12 titles there.

However, at present, even the younger players considered to be future champions – Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev, the only Grand Slam finalists born after 1990 or ATP Finals champions Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas – are all from Europe.

For now, as has been for many years, the question most tennis seek an answer to is when will we see a new first-time male Grand Slam champion. But while we are sure to see a new winner in the coming decade, the question that will stand is this: Will we see a Grand Slam champion outside Europe in the next decade?