NEW YORK—You never know what the millennial generation is going to get up to next. They helped elect President Obama and looked ready to save the planet, but somehow got distracted by their Instagram feeds along the way. This morning they seem to have sunk to a new low, at least according to this Salonheadline: “Millennials are intellectually underpowered because they’ve been told their whole life how wonderful they are.”
Millennials, born between 1982 and 2004, have been with us for a while in tennis. Even old-timers like Serena Williams and Roger Federer, both 33, nearly qualify. But this year’s U.S. Open has had a distinctly Next Generation flavor—call it Prime Millennial. Taking selfies with fans has been added to the list of players’ post-match duties, and last night Victoria Azarenka admitted that, while she appeared to be ultra-focused under her hoodie as she waited to walk into Ashe Stadium, she was actually busy composing a tweet about Milos Raonic's sleeve in her head.
Players born in the 90s haven’t had an easy road to the top so far, but they’ve begun to make their marks: Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic, both 23, joined the ATP’s Top 10 this year, as did 20-year-old Genie Bouchard on the women’s side. At the Open, though, those three have felt closer to the game’s old guard than the new.
Over Labor Day weekend, CBS handled the daytime telecasts from Flushing Meadows. The network, naturally, chose the game’s established stars—Djokovic, Federer, Williams, Murray, Sharapova—for its afternoon slots. The upside of this was that it left the tournament free to showcase its relatively unknown youth brigade in high-profile evening sessions. Bouchard, Dimitrov, and Raonic were joined by 19-year-old Nick Kyrgios of Australia, 17-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, 20-year-old Dominic Thiem of Austria, and 21-year-old Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia.
Now that most of the prime millennials have been sent back to their smart phones, here’s a guide to the game’s new new generation, and a guess as to how they’ll do when they grow up.
One thing we can say for them already is that they have no problem with the big stage. Once upon a time, players like Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Kevin Curren, and Lindsay Davenport were intimidated by the atmosphere at Flushing Meadows—even Roger Federer, when he first came there, didn’t think he stood a chance of winning in New York. And few sentient beings have ever expressed much love for Ashe Stadium. But the kids relish their chance to play in it, especially at night. Here are their reviews:
“Wunderbar!”—Bencic
“It’s an honor.”—Kyrgios
“I love playing at night.”—Thiem
“I’ve never felt anything like it.”—Bouchard
Even Aleksandra Krunic, who said she was “lost” out there in her warm-up, rose to the occasion in Ashe. In the end, she didn’t want to leave.
