Tennis

[ccbird]

To be fear Novak has won 7 straight against Nadal including the last 3 finals in Majors, both are fantastic players but Novak clearly has had the edge recently. Nadal (25) is only a year older than Djokovic (24) and yes he's had some knee problems, but both players should be considered to be in their primes. At 30 years old I wonder if Roger is done winning majors. Since the start of the 2005 calendar year there have been only 2 majors not won by the big three. It will be interesting to follow seeing who winds up with the most majors when all is said and done.

Australian French Wimbeldon U.S. Open
2005: Safin Nadal Federer Federer
2006: Federer Nadal Federer Federer
2007: Federer Nadal Federer Federer
2008: Djojovic Nadal Nadal Federer
2009: Nadal Federer Federer Del Potro
2010: Federer Nadal Nadal Nadal
2011: Djokovic Nadal Djokovic Djokovic
2012: Djokovic

Thank You. Djoker is 1 year younger than Nadal. Nadal owned him for the first 5 years of their career. Nadal is still very much in his prime. He's made the Finals of the last 4 Grand Slams and 7 of the last 8, winning 4 of them. Djoker has just turned it around because he can match Nadal's fitness and physical and mental toughness now. BTW... Fed is generally pretty darn competitive against a dominant Djoker. He beat him at the French last year and had 2 Match points against him at the US Open in September. I actually think Fed would have had a great shot to beat Djoker if he had made it to the Finals. Tennis is a game about matchups much like football. Nadal's game matches up real well with Fed's while Djoker's matches up real well with Nadal. It's not hyperbole to claim one player owns another.



As far as Nadal- Fed. Yes, much of Nadal's early success against Fed was on clay but as he progressively got better on other surfaces, first grass and then hardcourts, he closed that gap and eventually overtook Fed on those surfaces as well. At least in the big, outdoor tournaments. When was the last time Fed beat Nadal in any outdoor tourny?? I don't keep up with all the Masters tournys but I would guess it's very rare. Sure, you have more of a claim that Fed was moving out of his prime and Nadal moving into his but Fed was and is still playing at an exceptionally high level.


All of that said Fed still has an absolute lock on the GOAT right now. 17 GSs and he's still playing at a high level at 30 yrs old. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say Nadal and Djoker won't have that longevity. The great thing about Fed is how easy it all is for him. He's a graceful shotmaker. His pure skills will be hard to ever match. I love Nadal but he's a physical grinder. Nowhere near the shotmaker of Fed. Sampras was backed by the huge serve. Pretty much only above average at everything else. If he was playing in this era with these guys who could run and return serve he wouldn't have been anywhere near as dominant as he was in the 90's.