New kids on the block making presence felt

Talented crop of young aces rapidly narrowing the gap on vaunted Big 3

China is bearing witness to a discernible power shift at the top of men's tennis as a surging youth brigade is gaining ground more quickly than expected.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have maintained a veritable stranglehold on the majors for the past decade, but the ATP is now straddling a chasm, with one foot firmly planted on the Big 3 and the other nudging the new crop into uncharted territory, wondering what the landscape will look like once the three titans retire.