Does Federer beat Djoko?
- Thread starter john4psu
- Start date
I'm a Djokovic fan, but I think Federer is the favorite tomorrow. Hope I'm wrong, but Federer probably wins.
Rooting for Djoko tomorrow. Federer is a little to 'uppity' and full of himself for me. Of course, Djoko needs to stop making the ball girls cry when he yells for a towel.
What is Roger's career record vs Rafa? It's Ugly. I Can't say Fed is the greatest as Rafa may add a few more majors, I know he's been injured, but Nadal is still a bit younger than Fed and has a chance, especially on the Dirt. Fed may be the best grass court player though, Rafa the best clay, not sure who is the best at Hard Court? Maybe Tiger Woods?
Nadal may be younger than Federer according to the calendar, but even at 33 Federer has more left in the tank. The way Nadal has to play has destroyed his body. If Nadal had played Federer this year Fed would have killed him. Nadal at his peak was as good as anybody, and there is no doubt that his style of play was a matchup problem for Federer, but Federer could end up with 20 Grand Slams.
The greatest men's tennis player of all time, hands down, is Pancho Gonzalez. He was the number 1 in the world for at least eight years in a row. Unfortunately he played at a time when professionals were excluded from the Grand slam tournaments. The best estimate is that he would've won at least 20 Grand Slam events if he had been allowed to play.
He's already the greatest tennis player of all time. He doesn't need cement. Most major wins, but that doesn't even count everything. Just look at the number of semis and finals he has made. Heck he made the French Open finals 5 times.
He has held number 1 for 302 weeks.
There was a period of 6 years when his earliest loss was a semi final in any major.
If you look at the items for which he "stands alone" it is quite remarkable. Add the fact that he just played in the Wimbledon final is that much more impressive.
Additionally (added this) if you watched the ease with which he dispensed of Andy Murray it was almost comical. It was almost a practice match. Murray is a 2 time GS champion.
LdN
Perhaps, however ,did you ever see him play though? How was tennis coverage back then?
Yeah, I saw him play. I even ball boyed one of his matches. I even got to hit with him briefly! His opponent (Torben Ulrich) was late and Mr. Gonzalez let me and one of the other ball boys use his spare rackets while he put on a trick shot exhibition (serving blindfold, playing left-handed, hitting drop shots that bounced back over the net, hitting folded up towels placed on the court, that sort of thing) until Ulrich showed up. It was a memorable experience.
There are a number of very grainy videos of portions of his matches on Youtube.
In 1970, at age 42, Gonzales played Rod Laver in a $10,000 winner-take-all match in Madison Square Garden. I went up there to watch the match with my father, Laver was not only the world No. 1, he had won the Open Grand Slam the year before (the only time that has ever happened). Gonzalez won.
