For the long view of how the game of men's tennis is evolving, few say it better than Switzerland's Roger Federer, the most successful player of his generation, who has seen a trend or two come and go over the years.
The other day, Federer was speaking about how men's tennis has morphed into the Land Of The Giants, with one skyscraping talent after another arriving on the circuit. In days gone by, facing the tall guy meant one thing only – a serve-and-volleyer was waiting on the other side of the net, someone who would use his wingspan to close in and close off the net.
Now?
"Taller guys these days move actually pretty well," Federer assessed. "It's not at all how it used to be. It's unusual playing against these big guys with big reach, on the baseline, who don't actually mind staying back there."
Federer's theory about big men with a stay-at-home mindset was put to the test multiple times during Rogers Cup play Thursday, and most didn't have a lot of success with it.
Take, for example, Croatia's 6-foot 6-inch Marin Cilic, who upset Argentina's tower of power Juan Del Potro, also 6-foot-6, in the second round.
Cilic faced the tournament's No. 1 seed, Serbia's Novak Djokovic, on centre court Thursday and after a decent start in the first set, ultimately faltered against his steadier opponent and lost 7-5, 6-2.
On a day when the rains held off, but the winds came up, Cilic resolutely clung to the baseline against Djokovic, even when the opportunities were there to close in to the net. It just isn't in Cilic's DNA to do so, although trying to slug it out from the baseline against Djokovic – in a year when the latter is a mere 50-1 overall in match play – seems like a recipe for failure as well.
"I mean, he controls the ball really well and returns so good," explained Cilic, who freely acknowledged that he gave no thoughts whatsoever to moving forward against Djokovic, even if just to mix it up.
"Some moments, I had big serves and the ball comes back even quicker. He's not an easy guy to play against."
No, and that may become increasingly evident as the field sorts itself out. With the tournament now down to the quarter-finals, Djokovic remains in an untouchable category all his own.
Among the top four seeds, no one had a tougher draw on paper than he did, starting with the Russian former No. 3, Nikolay Davydenko and playing in a bracket that also included No. 5 Gael Monfils, No. 12 Viktor Troicki, plus dangerous sleepers such as Cilic and Del Potro.
But as he did in his first-round win, Djokovic got sharper as his match against Cilic moved along. He shows no signs of faltering, or losing the momentum he's built over the first half of the season.
Djokovic was laughing when he said it was his firm intention to keep all those big men pinned to the baseline, but also made the point that most of the top players in the game today rely heavily on the return game.
"If he's playing [Rafael]Nadal, Federer, [Andy]Murray, myself, whatever, we're all trying to get as many returns back," he said. "But I guess having this variety in the game obviously helps. I think everybody should get more often to the net because you need to have that in your game."
Perhaps the biggest difference in Djokovic's game is how well he's handling players in the top 10. He is 14-1 against the big boys this year, the only player to defeat both Nadal and Federer three times in a single season. His 50th win this season came more than three months earlier than it did a year ago.
Three years ago, Cilic gave Djokovic all he could handle at the U.S. Open, pushing him in four close sets (6-7, 7-5, 6-4, 7-6) during a match that lasted almost four hours. Now, the gap between the two has widened, with Djokovic showing all the necessary patience required to master the day's blustery challenging conditions.
"What I see on the court, he's a little more relaxed and he believes in his shots a little more," Cilic said. "With that many matches won this year, it gives him a big boost of confidence. When you get in those tight situations, he's not going to give out any points for free.
"All you need to do is earn every point, but that, on a consistent basis, is really tough."
Among the game's giant baseliners, it wasn't just Cilic who was eliminated in the third round. South Africa's 6-7 serving machine, Kevin Anderson, who took out No. 4 Andy Murray two days ago, fell to Switzerland's scrappy Stan Wawrinka in three sets. And that old-school serve-and-volleyer, the 6-foot-10 Ivo Karlovic, lost to the Czech Republic's 6-foot-5 Tomas Berdych in straight sets.
Berdych is quietly moving through the bottom half of the draw, playing only as well as needed to advance – and maybe the best news of all is that he can't meet Djokovic until the final. Nowadays, with the way the Serbian is chewing up the field at one tournament after another, a fortuitous place in the bracket – far from where Djokovic stands, right at the top – may be the best news a player can get.