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Big Four (tennis) Wallpaper
In tennis, the term Big Four refers to the quartet of men's singles players comprising Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. These players are considered dominant in terms of ranking and tournament victories, including Grand Slam tournaments and ATP Masters 1000 events, as well as the ATP World Tour Finals and Olympic Games, having dominated the sport amongst them from 2004 onwards. Never before in the history of tennis has there been a group of players as dominant as these four.
Federer was the first to come to prominence after winning Wimbledon in 2003 and established himself as the world No. 1 by the beginning of 2004. Nadal followed in 2005 after a French Open triumph including a win over Federer, and they occupied the top two places in the ATP rankings for 211 consecutive weeks from July 2005 to August 2009. Djokovic, from 2007, and later Murray, from 2008, increasingly challenged Federer and Nadal's dominance with seasonal consistency. Djokovic captured three of the four major tournaments in 2011, and in 2012 the quartet won one Major tournament apiece. In 2011, Nadal declared that his and Federer's period of joint dominance had ended, owing to the ascent of other players, notably Djokovic and later Murray.
They regularly held the top four places in the year-end rankings between 2008 and 2013, and they have held the top two spots continuously since 2005, as well as the top ranking since February 2004, meaning that no player outside the Big Four has ranked World No.1 in the last 13.59 years or even No. 2 in more than 12 years. All four have reached a career high No. 1. Federer was world No. 1 for a record 302 weeks, Djokovic for 223 weeks (fifth since the inception of the ATP Rankings in 1973), Nadal, the current No. 1, for 146 weeks (7th since 1973), and Murray for 41 weeks. Federer leads among them with 5 year-end No.1, followed by Djokovic with 4, Nadal with 3 and Murray with 1. They were ranked year-end world top 4 for five times (2008–2012).
Since this time the term "Big Four", while used previously, became popular with the media and in tennis literature. The Big Four have been a critical part of what has, since 2006, often been labelled a new "Golden Era" in tennis; that term is also applied to the mid-1970s to 1980s, and the 1920s to the 1930s.
Amongst them, they have won 46 of the last 51 men's major singles titles, from the 2005 French Open through to the 2017 US Open. They have also won 12 of the last 14 World Tour Finals (previously Tennis Masters Cup), with Federer winning six and Djokovic winning five, with a record 4 consecutive from 2012 to 2015, and Murray winning one. Of the four, Federer leads with a record 19 Grand Slam tournament titles followed by Nadal (16), Djokovic (12) and Murray (3). Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic have completed a Career Grand Slam by winning each of the four Majors at least once, with Nadal also winning a gold medal at 2008 Summer Olympics for a Career Golden Slam. Murray has won neither the French Open nor the Australian Open, despite reaching the final five times in Melbourne and once in Paris, but has also won two Olympic gold medals (one each at the 2012 Summer Olympics and at the 2016 Summer Olympics), becoming the first tennis player in history to win two singles gold medals, and the most successful male Olympic tennis player in the modern era with two gold medals and a silver medal. In the three Olympic Games between 2008 and 2016, the four won 5 gold medals (Murray 2, Nadal 2, Federer 1), 2 silver medals (Murray and Federer) and a bronze medal (Djokovic).
Furthermore, at ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, they are all in the top-10 list (since 1970). Djokovic and Nadal lead with a record 30 titles each, followed by Federer (26) and Murray (14).[17] All four players have also played key roles in leading their countries to success in the Davis Cup. Djokovic and Federer helped Serbia (2010) and Switzerland (2014), respectively, win the competition for the first time, while Nadal has won four Davis Cup titles, and Murray helped end a drought of 79 years for Great Britain in Davis Cup competition (2015).
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