Now that Novak Djokovic's historic five-set finals victory over Roger Federer has capped off an epic 2019 Wimbledon, it's time to look back at some of the biggest storylines on the men's side from the past fortnight in London.
No Doubt Novak
Rafael Nadal has been the prohibitive favorite to win the French Open for over a decade now, and Djokovic is approaching that status everywhere else. After a dip in form that was put to bed at Wimbledon in 2018, Djokovic has now won four of five Grand Slams, with the exception of Nadal's domain at Roland Garros. The Serbian stud can safely be penciled in as the favorite to take home a 17th Grand Slam title when the US Open rolls around, barring a major injury between now and then.
Field Still Lapped
While Djokovic has dominated the men's game recently, the biggest gap comes between the Big 3 (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer) and everyone else. Roberto Bautista Agut deserves to be commended for his run to the semifinals and Nick Kyrgios gave Nadal all he could handle by surprisingly staying focused for an entire match, but there was never much doubt that a member of the Big 3 would take home the Wimbledon title. The trio has split the past 11 Grand Slams since Stan Wawrinka's victory at the 2016 US Open, and their dominance seems no closer to ending than when it started, especially with Andy Murray (hip) still not playing singles.
Andy Back in Action
Speaking of Murray, he didn't participate in singles here, but he returned to the court in both men's doubles and mixed doubles, showing no limitations in doing so. Doubles is much less physically taxing, but all signs point to Murray returning to singles sometime in the near future as well, quite possibly by the US Open. While he likely won't challenge the Big 3 in what would be his first singles action since the Australian Open, Murray is pretty definitively the fourth-best player of this era and would be a dangerous floater that nobody wants to see in their section of the draw.
Zverev's Downward Zoom
This tournament featured a number of early upsets, with Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas all falling in the opening round. Of those three, Zverev has the most cause for concern considering he admitted in his post-match press conference that his confidence in big moments is nearly nonexistent at the moment. The 22-year-old German is just 29-17 at Grand Slams in his career and has never gotten past the quarterfinals. His struggles in majors seem to have leaked into the rest of Zverev's game as well -- he's won more than one match in only four of his last 13 tournaments and will be a prime early upset candidate at the US Open.
You go, Ugo
While his journey to the fourth round didn't receive as much attention as deeper runs by the likes of Bautista Agut and Sam Querrey, Ugo Humbert was the breakout performer of this tournament on the men's side. The 21-year-old Frenchman knocked off a pair of top-20 players in Gael Monfils and fellow youngster Felix Auger-Aliassime before finally falling to Djokovic in straight sets. There's no shame in that loss, and the result moved Humbert up 18 spots to a career-best ranking of 48. Given his level of play at Wimbledon, it won't be long until Humbert breaks into the top 32 and starts to get seeded at Grand Slams.
