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Carlos, SereneWilliams the Great, clayslide, Prakash Surendran and Zola :
I will reply to your posts here…..
Carlos:
Thanks for that great post on your views about GOAThood. I agree Federer is not THAT MUCH greater than Nadal. However he is great, at this point and his numbers [overall] look better than Nadal’s. Ofcourse, there is a possibility that this will change.
When it changes, I will acknowledge the change and re-consider my view. For now Laver/Federer are my top 2 GOATs. Also, we will have to disagree on the weak era claim. If Roger’s era is weak, Nadal et al should have dominated Safin, Hewitt and Roddick, but it is not so. Safin beat Novak in Wimbledon, Hewitt had a winning H2H against Nadal at one point and he still has a respectful record against Nadal. Roddick retired with a winning H2H [ H2H is something that rafa fans like a lot] against Novak and he beat Murray in their biggest encounter at Wimbledon 2009. Nalbandian/Davydenko have inflicted painful beatings on Rafa. It doesn’t look like a weak era to me!
Hi RodFederer,
Thank for the reply! I will concede that the records vs Rafa of those you mention are valuable. But you must remember that Rafa and Nole at that time where babies. And especially in Rafa’s case, to me is kinda unfair to believe that Rafa was mature at such a young age. Most people forget he started winning on clay way earlier than he should have! But that doesn’t mean he was mature to consistently compete on all surfaces. It only means his immature game was still way better on clay than any one else (established or immature). Remember, you do mention that Rafa is from another generation different from Federer (and I do agree, even though there is overlap and their eras are not totally separate). Once Rafa and Nole matured, they became WAY better than Federer’s era players. Thats what I mean when I say it was weaker. However, in no way I want to use this against Federer. I just want to point out that Rafa has had in is prime more difficult competition… Also, in an unrelated topic, can I ask your insite on what do you think of the Future of the sport? Namely, who do you think will take over of the youngsters (Dimitrov, Jerzy, etc). Also, do you believe they can ever be as great as this generations greats? Cheers!
Hi Carlos,
Thanks once again for taking the time to reply and more importantly presenting your views in such a wonderful manner.
I am glad we are on the same page that Federer and Nadal are from two different generations with overlap. Now to your point about weak era, this is what I am saying. I am not sure Djokovic/Murray/Ferrer/Berdych/Tsonga – Nadal’s rivals from his own generation are any better than Safin, Roddick, Hewitt/Haas/Nalbandian.
I mean Federer has had the wood on Djokovic/Murray too. He beat them back to back in Wimbledon last year. Murray did not win a GS match against Roger till Roger was 31+. Djokovic still has a losing H2H [something Rafa fans use as their primary bargaining chip in the Fedal debate]. He has competitive H2Hs against both with a winning H2H against Novak. He had similarly competitive H2Hs with hewitt and nalbandian, which he was able to completely turn around, because he was in a fair battle with them – his generation players. With Nadal/Murray/Djokovic, It is an unfair battle for Roger to battle younger players in a game where even 28 is over the hill. Tennis is a young man’s game. Very few players win slams past 28.
Hi Rod Federer,
Thanks for the reply again. Points well taken. I don’t we will actually agree completely on this one, but I’ll leave it at that because it is really hard to get to a final conclusions. However, I will concede that it doesn’t matter who played, Federer beat them all and his record are simply out of this world. In the end, like I always discuss with my father which as a big tennis fan (especially the Swiss Maestro), I like to think of Rafa and Roger as the best pair of rivals in the history of the game. It doesn’t really matter to much to me that Rafa won 21-10 to now, but the quality of thier shot making every time they played is unmatched by any rilvary, even Nole-Rafa. My dad always says that Rafa is the best ever (he is a bit pessimistic about Roger losing so much to Rafa, get frustrated haha), but ironically I always said that he was riding off Roger to easy. Like I told you before, Rafa does have a pretty good case for GOAT, but Roger’s case for GOAT to this day his better than Rafa’s. Good debate!
SW The Great:
Rafa owns real estate in Roger’s mind on clay. Roger owns real estate in Rafa’s mind in indoors and grass [4-0 and 2-1]. Similarly Novak owns a similar real-estate in Rafa’s mind. [11-6 on Hard courts].
It is better Rafa has a real estate in Roger’s mind on clay than players like Davydenko/Nalbandian owning it in Rafa’s mind. If you consider Rafa outside clay, there are a few players with winning H2H against rafa, so does that mean they own a real estate in Rafa’s mind? It seems to me that you are making a lot out of 21-10. There is a bigger number out there:
Weeks at No.1 : Fed pwns Nadal there 302-102! Novak is close to 100 weeks now. So Rafa will have the H2Hs, but Fed/Novak might have the better numbers at No.1
I think I would trade for weeks at no.1 over H2H.
“Also, in an unrelated topic, can I ask your insite on what do you think of the Future of the sport? Namely, who do you think will take over of the youngsters (Dimitrov, Jerzy, etc). Also, do you believe they can ever be as great as this generations greats? Cheers!”
That is a wonderful topic on so many levels. Talking about the future, about youngsters delivering on promise and so on and so forth. My personal favorite among the youngsters, is Dimitrov – I am a huge fan of single-handed backhand and I hope Dimitrov can keep the shbh alive. Do you know that in the last 10 years, only one player other than Roger won a GS with a shbh? Gaston Gaudio.
Now who do I think will rule the roost among the crop as an aspiring Sports Analyst and as an experienced Business/Strategic Analyst? My 2nd favorite, Jerzy! I think this will be the next greatest rivalry, Jerzy-Dimitrov. Ofcourse I see Raonic getting there too. I like the attitude Goffin got too – very much like the hewitt/chang mould. Grinders in a sport where 6-1 or 6-2 seems to be the champion height! [Sampras, Fed, Nadal, Djokovic]
And ofcourse there are other players like Jack Sock, Ryan Harrison et al. Do I think this generation will be as great as the present generation? I definitely think so – I believe in the evolution and growth of humans into superior beings with every passing generation – on all fronts. The real question is do these young guys have the faith in themselves that a lot of tennis/sports fans like ourselves have in them?
11 years back I believed a pony-tailed player will win 18slams. He has not let me down. 9 years back I believed a super-energetic kiddo will throw everything and the kitchen-sink at the said pony-tailed guy. He did not let me down either. At the same time, there was this child prodigy from France who had a most divine SHBH and I believed he will be competing with the above said super-energetic kiddo. I won’t say he let me down – no one with such a Divine shot can let others down. I will only say I expected too much of Richard Gasquet, who I still love watching. 🙂
I hope Dimitrov/Jerzy/Raonic et al get their acts together! Tennis/Sports deserve it 🙂
Hi Rod Federer,
Thanks for such complete and lengthy responses. I do agree with you in that I think Jerzy will probably be the must successful of the bunch. I also concur with you that my favorite of the bunch is Grigor Dimitrov, although it is quite weird since I am a Rafa fan and Grigor’s style is so much more alike with Federer. The one thing I think kills Grigor at the moment is his lack of consistent aggressiveness in matches. I was quite happy to see he changed that tactic vs Rafa in Cincinnati (even though it was only good for one set, mostly due to the fact that his aggressive tactic gained him to many UFE). I do think however that he must keep playing this way and eventually I’m sure he will find the court more often than not.
Jerzy however has a very big advantage in his serve and forehand, while also moving incredible well for a big guy (probably the best mover among big guys right now) and having amazing touch. That is what to me puts him over Grigor. However, serving 45-55% of first serves all the time will not cut it against to the guys nowadays. He has find a way to serve more effectively with those first serves. He also needs to master when to use his dropshots (he uses them quite too much that it because predictable at time).
As for you response to whether this generation will be better than the past era and a half (if that’s even a correct term lol), I certainly hope so but wont get my hope’s to high. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have definitely spoiled us so much with their ridiculous-out of this world level of play. I mean they have 35 GS and 60 Masters 1000 between them! They have not let anybody get in the mix (with the exception of Murray a bit), I have never seen anything like it in any sport that I can remember (maybe Tiger Woods in golf of the Celtics back in the day?). But I do have a lot of faith in Jerzy and Grigor to step it up. I really hope to see DelPo take over soon while he is still somewhat young and Posposil get in the mix too. Milos, im not so sure, he has a lot of work to do with his returns and his movement. Nonetheless, it will be interesting! BTW, great call on the pony tailed guy and the super energetic kiddo! You nailed it again 🙂 Cheers!
Thanks Carlos for your replies. I will get back to you in detail later [have a deadline to be met tonight], but please tell your Dad to follow our sight. We have two wonderful Federer fans – myself and a very good friend of mine who will start writing soon, and we will give him good reason to believe Roger is the best 😉
Also, I complete agree. Fedal Rivalry is the ultimate rivalry in tennis. surely that is the GOAT rivalry in tennis. LOL!!!
Keep posting and put in a word for our blog, that we hope to keep expanding into bigger things 🙂
Enjoy tennis and life dude!