New Delhi, June 9 -- One of the great joys of the Big Three era was that following the sport had a very personal touch to it - you were either in Roger Federer's corner or shouting Vamos with Rafael Nadal or taking on the world as part of Novak Djokovic's #NoleFam. There was no fence-sitting allowed. You lived every point with them and that made their triumphs feel like your own.

The Big Three's incredible 66-Grand Slam run is generally considered to have begun after Federer's 2003 Wimbledon win and gone on till Djokovic's shock US Open exit in 2024 - the two decades of domination meant the players and the fandom became part of the sport's fabric.

As the era draws to a close (Djokovic is still around, but fast fading), the fans were ove...