What Happened to the Next Generation of Men's Tennis Stars?

This time last year, Rafael Nadal had withdrawn from the U.S. Open with a wrist injury. Andy Murray was still recovering from minor back surgery, and the big talk on the ATP Tour was about all the young guns—Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Nick Kyrgios—surging toward the top. 

A year later, and those younger players seem to have taken a step back. On Wednesday, Dimitrov lost a five-setter to Mikhail Kukushkin. Murray sent Kyrgios packing on Tuesday, and Nishikori lost on Monday.

Meanwhile, Murray, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and even Richard Gasquet—a bunch of veterans—are outperforming the youngsters. 

What happened to the so-called youth movement in men's tennis?

The ATP Top 20 includes 13 players aged 28 or older. Six of them are in their 30s. Dominic Thiem, 21, is the youngest. 

We're not even into the third round of the 2015 U.S. Open, and already the anticipated generational shift seems on hold. 

In 2013, James Blake called Raonic and Dimitrov the best of the bunch. At the time, Jerzy Janowicz had just advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals and was considered one of the best up-and-coming young players on the tour. In evaluating their talent, Blake told Tennis.com that Dimitrov had the biggest upside, but he'd fear playing Raonic the most:

Out of those four guys, I'd least like to play Raonic because of that serve... It could be a set and 3-all in the second set, you don't feel you're into the match because he's won so many free points off his serve, he's missed a lot of balls on the return game, and he hasn't given you anything to really feel like you're into the match. That to me makes it uncomfortable.

Raonic, ranked No. 10, has been one of the more consistent young players. Nishikori, who turns 26 in December, is a little older than the others and by far the most accomplished.

But none of them has generated the type of buzz created last year when Nishikori made the finals at the U.S. Open, Kyrgios upset Nadal at the All England Club and Dimitrov reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the semifinals at Wimbledon. 

Right now, 36-year-old Ivo Karlovic, ranked No. 21, is having a better year than Dimitrov, Kyrgios, Janowicz and the 22-year-old American hopeful, Jack Sock.  

Janowicz, once ranked as high as No. 14, is currently ranked No. 61. Nishikori lost to unseeded Benoit Paire in the first round. Kyrgios, last year's breakout star and media darling, disgraced himself with a vulgar comment during a match in Montreal against Wawrinka and has the threat of a six-month suspension hanging over his head. Dimitrov, ranked No. 17, was No. 8 going into last year's U.S. Open. 

And then we have that trio of Australian guns—Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Bernard Tomic. Kokkinakis, suffering from severe cramping, retired from his opening match against Gasquet, 4-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 2-0. Tomic, who was arrested in Miami earlier this summer, at least won his first-round match.

It's not just a phenomenon on the men's side; it's also happening in the WTA Tour, where "rising star" status used to be reserved for teenagers. CoCo Vandeweghe, 23, has been pegged a rising star for a few years now. She lost her second-round match Wednesday against 30-year-old Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who next takes on 33-year-old Serena Williams.

Vandeweghe, ranked No. 43, told Harvey Araton of the New York Times that the days of teens taking the tour by storm are gone: “You don’t see any young players crashing the tour, even in the men’s game, and destroying everyone the way they used to...To me, that means there is no exact in-your-prime years anymore. You have more time to figure out your longevity, your game, your body.”

Unfortunately for the younger set, the older guys, mentally tougher, are sticking around longer and staying in shape. Meanwhile, many of the next-generation stars appear either too banged up, mixed up or messed up to challenge the mostly 30-somethings who are still ruling the top of the tour.