Beginning a new tennis season is a bit like turning over a new leaf.  The same fresh set of opportunities awaits every competitor, from the lowest ranked to the highest, and every one of those players will greedily do his best to grab as many of them as possible in an effort cross the finish line as the world No. 1 come the year's end.  But while those overwhelming feelings of “newness” and “hopefulness” are undeniable, there is also inevitably some residual baggage that carries over from the prior year.  The impact of that hangover, however, could be determined by what happens in the opening weeks of the new season.

One of the more interesting trends to possibly cross over into this season concerns one of the hottest topics of 2014:  the potential end to the era of dominance by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray, or as they are collectively known, the Big Four.  Two of last year’s majors were won by men tasting Grand Slam victory for the first time as Stanislas Wawrinka won his maiden title at the Australian Open and Marin Cilic got the job done at the US Open.  There were also a number of other impressive and inspiring performances from young guns such as Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic, and Grigor Dimitrov, with the first two playing well enough to secure berths in the elite eight-man field at the ATP World Tour Finals.  All of this added together had both players and fans alike murmuring about a long-awaited shift in the men’s game.

In hindsight, talk of the demise of the Big Four would seem to have been premature.  Andy Murray may have had a subpar year, but between the three of them, Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer still managed to scoop up the bulk of the biggest prizes in the sport.  Furthermore, on more than one occasion when they were halted, the hiccup came courtesy of injury or illness, not stiff resistance from the opposition.  In the end, they all proved that they still have plenty of game left in the tank.

Of course, even if the collapse of the Big Four is not as near as some might have originally thought, an end to their reign has to come eventually.  At least in part, how quickly that reign comes to a close is dependent upon the belief of the rest of the field.  Tennis, like any other sport, is as much about the mental aspects as the physical.  On the crucial points or with the finish line within sight, players need to believe that they have the goods to pull off the upset against their more decorated opponents.  In so doing, they can plant ever-growing seeds of doubt in the minds of those legends of the game.  What transpired over the course of 2014 made strides towards making just such a scenario the new reality, but what happens at the start of 2015 could determine if those strides continue to build momentum or get stopped dead in their tracks.

If the rest of the field were looking for a reason to feel optimistic about building momentum, they need look no further than the results this past week.  Nadal lost his opener in Doha to German qualifier Michael Berrer.  Djokovic was also shown an early exit at that event by ace machine Ivo Karlovic, and Federer barely escaped elimination in his first match in Brisbane against wildcard and home favorite John Millman.  Those were hardly the kind of performances that instill fear into the rest of the competition, so an opportunity for someone else to enjoy a breakthrough could be lurking just around the corner.

Of course, even the greats need time to shake off the rust and find their rhythm.  That is why it is imperative to avoid reading too much into early shocking losses.  But it was at the start of 2014, marked by Wawrinka’s victory in Melbourne, that gave others the kind of belief that propelled them to new heights, even at the expense of the Big Four.  Signs are there that we may be in for more of the same in 2015.  Either way, this season is off to an intriguing start.