With the ‘Big Three’ era firmly behind us, will we ever witness that level of unrelenting dominance again in tennis?

It was standing room only at Carlos Alcaraz’s press conference last Wednesday at the Caja Magica, where the Spaniard announced he was withdrawing from the Madrid Open due to two separate injuries in his right and left legs. 

After winning Monte Carlo and reaching the final in Barcelona in consecutive weeks, playing 10 matches in 12 days, the four-time Grand Slam champion’s body had had enough. 

With the French Open just four weeks away, it made sense that Alcaraz would choose to sit out the Madrid Open and deal with his right adductor and left hamstring issues. 

Last year, a forearm injury limited Alcaraz to just one clay-court tournament in the build-up to the French Open, forcing him out of Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome. He still went on to triumph in Paris, defeating Alexander Zverev in the final of the French Open. 

The five biggest clay-court tournaments of the spring last season – Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, and Roland Garros – were won by five different players. 

This clay swing so far, Alcaraz won Monte Carlo and Holger Rune won Barcelona. Neither will win Madrid this fortnight, with the former withdrawing from the tournament and the latter retiring one-set into his opener with a right knee injury on Friday. 

Long gone are the days where Rafael Nadal would routinely sweep four spring tournaments on the red clay – something he pulled off in nine different seasons. 

Or the years where Roger Federer would run away with the last three to five tournaments of the year, then start the new season with another undefeated stretch, like that time he built a 41-match winning streak that included seven consecutive titles from August 2006 to March 2007. 

Novak Djokovic once won the first 43 matches of the