Since the 2005 French Open, the only grand slam that was not won by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, or Novak Djokovic was the 2009 U.S. Open won by Juan Martin Del Potro.
Adding in Andy Murray, no one else made a final last year (Murray and Federer 1 appearance each, with the other 6 slots split evenly by Djokovic and Nadal). Those four are the only men left at this years Australian Open, which means 4 of the last 5 Grand Slams semi finals comprised those four (last year at Wimbledon Federer lost in the quarters to Tsonga or it would have been 5 straight).
I don't ever remember a time where 4 men (I'm including Murray since he is clearly way better than everyone else) dominated the rest of the field like this. Totally impressive, especially since they are all doing it on all 3 surfaces.
The questions I'm struggling with are
Is this good for tennis? If not, what can tennis do about it?
What does this mean for American tennis (since none are American)?
Who is going to be the person to challenge those four?
late 70's into early 80's .............. Connors, Borg, McEnroe.
People forget that Jimmy Connors came back in 1982
to sweep Wimbledon (vs McEnroe) and the US Open (vs Lendl) and regain the World #1 ranking.
They certainly won a lot, but there was always others winning titles, like Vilas, Wilander, Noah, etc. For that stretch there (and it really hasn't been much better since that original post) there has just been complete and utter domination by the 3 men that have won the most grand slams in the sports history. To have that happen at the same time is astonishing. Imagine how many title they'd have if they weren't taking them from each other.
For what it's worth -
1976
French - Panatta
Wimbledon - Borg
US Open - Connors
1977
French - Vilas
Wimbledon - Borg
US Open - Vilas
1978
French - Borg
Wimbledon - Borg
US Open - Connors
1979
French - Borg
Wimbledon - Borg
US Open - McEnroe
1980
French - Borg
Wimbledon - Borg
US Open - McEnroe
1981
French - Borg
Wimbledon - Borg
US Open - McEnroe
1982
French - Wilander
Wimbledon - Connors
US Open - Connors
1983
French - Noah
Wimbledon - McEnroe
US Open - Connors
Also note that:
Connors won Wimbledon and US Open and Australian in '74. (Connors banned from the French or he would have won the Grand Slam)
Borg won Paris in '74, '75 & Wimbledon in '76,
McEnroe won Wimbledon '84, US Open '84
(The Australian was not a high priority in this era, though still a Grand Slam event)
A couple of interlopers, but the Big 3 dominated.