Abu Dhabi: The so-called ‘Big Four’ of tennis – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray — remain the men to beat at the grand slams despite a growing challenge to their dominance, former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek insists.

However, the lanky Dutchman conceded that first-time major winners in 2014, Stanislas Wawrinka and Marin Cilic, had whipped up winds of change in the sport by beating members of the stellar quartet on the game’s biggest stages.

Swiss star Wawrinka performed heroically in seeing off defending champion Djokovic in the last four at January’s Australian Open and then clinching the trophy after a four-set triumph over the world number one at the time, Nadal.

Last month, Croatia’s Cilic overpowered five-time champion Federer in the US Open semi-finals in three sets, before emulating the feat in the final against Djokovic’s last-four conqueror, Kei Nishikori of Japan.

Yet Krajicek, who achieved his own shock grand slam success when he won the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 1996 when seeded only 17th, and after knocking out defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals, told Gulf News: “I still believe that, every time a grand slam starts, I have the feeling that my favourites [to win] will be those four players. They [Wawrinka et al] are coming closer but for me, the big four are still the big four.

“However, I think they are being challenged and, while they’re maybe not in decline, they are not as dominating as before.”

Krajicek, who was speaking on Wednesday at a media briefing at Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi for the ‘Tennis at the Palace’ event in March next year, believes Djokovic and Murray are the most likely members of the elite group to add to the foursome’s colossal combined grand slam tally of 40 in 2015.

He said this was due to the fact that the 27-year-olds “are in the prime of their careers”, while adding that, if he is fit, nine-time French Open champion Nadal would be favourite to add another Roland Garros title to his bumper haul.

“Roger’s still there and capable of winning top trophies, too,” he added.

But Krajicek, who will join the likes of 1987 Wimbledon men’s singles champion Pat Cash at the legends’ grasscourt exhibition event in Abu Dhabi next year, added: “But now we have Cilic, Nishikori, Wawrinka and [Grigor] Dimitrov, too, if he’s going to make the next step. Probably next year there will be one or two slams won by not the big four.”