Wow, talk about putting your thumb on the scale. Med's complaints about slow courts would make sense if they set things up to favor Nadal. Add some grit to the surface coat paint and it will play like sandpaper as balls get fuzzy quickly with slow bounces that sit up.
I still subscribe to the GOAT herd philosophy. But "there can be only one" leading the herd. The current battle for that, if it's only slam events, is still ongoing until retirements settle it.
One person says it will happen. I have my doubts that it will happen anytime in the next two decades.
Any thoughts of labeling them, any of them, villains should be dispelled. There may have been some politics along the way, but it seems that they set it aside.
Roger Federer to Retire - USA Today
He had a good run. We all knew it was soon.
The tennis triumvirate is loosening its grasp on domination. Fed ran out the clock as far as he could take it. Rafa lasted much longer than I thought that he could, and I still think he has some game left in him.
Novak should recover from the Mob Hit Australia put on him, leaving him with the equivalent of two broken legs. It's clear that he's off stride, at least for now.
I think we'll see Rafa and Novak out there again, but probably never as strong as before.
Article that argues that this is the case.
You didn't see articles like this back when Fed was crushing through the ranks and winning everything. The article raises some good arguments, but effortless is effortless, and Fed demonstrated that during much of his career. While he was playing his best, it may have been easier for him to win than either of the other big three because they had to stay focused on their method rather than just play.
Here is how I see it.
It reminds me of the Rock, Scissors, Paper game.
In the Big 3, before 2011 Fed could beat everyone except Rafa. When Novak hit stride in 2011 and forward, Rafa couldn't touch him on HC but Rafa can beat everyone including Fed.
Now, Med may become a problem for Novak as he has shown, but it has still been 9 years since Rafa has taken a set from Novak. So, if the draw had Novak facing Rafa anywhere in the draw, even the finals, the odds were his.
How were the odds changed?
It moved Rafa's chance to win the whole thing from less than 20% to 50%. And because of how games line up, it took Med's chance from say 40-50 % against Novak to 25% against Rafa. Against Med, even. Knocking Novak out of it took him from a 50-70% depending on the draw, to Zero.
Federer wins in this important statistic
Maybe we should just go with the most Sportsmanship awards as the deciding statistic. As for winning percentages, why stop at the Open Tennis Era?
A former world #1 and Now a Coach explains why
I tend to agree with this simply because of the probability that even one play can stay at the top this long much less three in the same era. This has been a second Golden Age of Tennis if you count the '60s-'70s as the first one.
