The 2014 Grand Slam season will be remembered for bookend stunners. We thought it could not get more surprising than Stan Wawrinka’s triumph at the Australian Open, but it did just that when Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori squared off in the U.S. Open final earlier this month.

By prevailing Down Under, Wawrinka became the first man outside the Big 4 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray to win a major since Juan Martin Del Potro at the 2009 U.S. Open. The Cilic-Nishikori showdown signaled the first first time since the 2005 Australian Open (Marat Safin d. Lleyton Hewitt) that a slam title match was without either Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic.Check out ESPN’s entire list of men’s singles Grand Slam winners and runner-ups.This year’s borderline hard-to-believe results beg the question: is a new era upon us or will the Big 4 restore order to the Grand…