Best display of mental strength ?

D

D.Nalby12

G.O.A.T.
Pick just one match in which you believe the winner displayed best mental strength you ever seen.

My pick - Novak Djokovic W18 SF. The man just refused to lose on that day. Nadal was better player but thanks to Novak' insane mental strength he pulled off one of greatest wins of this era against a player who happens to be another mental giant. People often talk about his wins over Federer saving MPs but this win was more impressive IMO. Nadal didn't choke - he was outlasted mentally and physically by Djokovic.
 
D

D.Nalby12

G.O.A.T.
AO13 said:
Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon final 2019.
Click to expand...

It was more of Fed's choke than mental strength of Djokovic. You could already see fear in Fed's eyes once he got to 40-15. Memories of 2011 USO were up there which crippled his mind so much that couldn't even hit ball inside of court. That weak approach shot on second MP was just wishful thinking from Fed that Novak would land an easy passing shot out like Murray did in 2012 Final..
 
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
1643973991_307216_1643974229_noticia_normal.jpg


To break the slam record, closing in on age 36, fatigued, and down 2 sets and 0-40 on a court he’s been cursed on. Insanity :D
 
Born_to_slice

Born_to_slice

Legend
D.Nalby12 said:
It was more of Fed's choke than mental strength of Djokovic. You could already see fear in Fed's eyes once he got to 40-15. Memories of 2011 USO were up there which crippled his mind so much that couldn't even hit ball inside of court. That weak approach shot on second MP was just wishful thinking from Fed that Novak would land an easy passing shot out like Murray did in 2012 Final..
Click to expand...
There's nothing easy about passing shot on a match point. Novak also hit it pretty close to the line and it it were not so good, Federer would have an relatively easy volley to put away.
 
S

Sampras-Bruguera 1993

Legend
outside of Pete who was on a level of his own in certain circumstances mentioned above which I won’t count, then it has to be Agassi’s 99 French win over Medvedev and year in general or Djoker at the US open in 2011 semis and Wimbledon 2019 final vs Fed

nadal 2022 AO win needs to be mentioned too. Insane comeback. Looked like a complete straight set win for med
 
Sudacafan

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
AO13 said:
Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon final 2019.
Click to expand...
It was a big win obviously, but I am not so sure if this one was a mental strength statement per se.
Fed choking has a lot to do with it, and Novak was leading almost all of that match.
 
Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Professional
Medvedev 2021 USO FINAL

So great a performance that he was able to break in a thousand pieces Djokovics hopes of achieving the CYGS
 
  • Like
Reactions: DSH
abmk

abmk

Bionic Poster
D.Nalby12 said:
Pick just one match in which you believe the winner displayed best mental strength you ever seen.

My pick - Novak Djokovic W18 SF. The man just refused to lose on that day. Nadal was better player but thanks to Novak' insane mental strength he pulled off one of greatest wins of this era against a player who happens to be another mental giant. People often talk about his wins over Federer saving MPs but this win was more impressive IMO. Nadal didn't choke - he was outlasted mentally and physically by Djokovic.
Click to expand...

Djokovic was a little better player in Wim 18 semi thanks to serve, even if nadal was a little better off the ground.
Djokovic had more BP chances, more BP chance games.
Nadal didn't choke this match, Djokovic just edged him out.
 
H

Herald

Guest
Hitman said:
Between these three? Nothing comes close to what Pete did.

But, I would pick AO 2012 for Djokovic, RG 2013 for Nadal and AO 2017 for Federer.
Click to expand...
You mean PETE?
Surprised a guy who knows so much about him can't even get his name right.
 
H

Herald

Guest
Hitman said:
Probably a tie between Sampras v Courier at AO 95 and Sampras v Corretja at USO 96

If you don't know why I picked these two matches, then you really don't know anything about Sampras.
Click to expand...
This was an Age of Legends in a way. A certain roughness and heart that seems lacking in the smoothed out, perfectly oiled machine that is modern homogenized tennis.
 
SamprasisGOAT

SamprasisGOAT

Hall of Fame
Herald said:
This was an Age of Legends in a way. A certain roughness and heart that seems lacking in the smoothed out, perfectly oiled machine that is modern homogenized tennis.
Click to expand...
Sampras 2000 Wimbledon final. Injured and out of form Sampras breaks slam record and mentally gos into semi retirement m afterwards. Sampras was a set and a break down against a serious grass court player in rafter! Or how about USO QF 2001
 
DSH

DSH

Talk Tennis Guru
Can someone tell me what Nadal was thinking in the fifteenth game of the final set in which he had a third break in his favor and went to the net with a punishable backhand?
:oops::confused::whistle:
 
triforce defender

triforce defender

Semi-Pro
Nadal vs Djokovic 2013 US Open: 6-2, 3-6, 4-4, 0-40. We all remember how Nadal dug out of that and won 8 of the final 9 games to close out the match. Without that clutch performance, we wouldn't have the 2-1 Open.
 
Rosstour

Rosstour

G.O.A.T.
Federer fighting off 7 match points vs Sandgren deserves mention here too.

Dude was down 6-3 in 4th-set TB, I don't think I have ever seen someone fight back from that many MPs down.
 
A

AndrewUtz

Rookie
Not only this.
D.Nalby12 said:
Pick just one match in which you believe the winner displayed best mental strength you ever seen.

My pick - Novak Djokovic W18 SF. The man just refused to lose on that day. Nadal was better player but thanks to Novak' insane mental strength he pulled off one of greatest wins of this era against a player who happens to be another mental giant. People often talk about his wins over Federer saving MPs but this win was more impressive IMO. Nadal didn't choke - he was outlasted mentally and physically by Djokovic.
Click to expand...
Not only that, many around this time we’re saying Djokovic’s career as a slam contender was over after his return from surgery. What makes it so crazy is he also had to prove to himself that he could do it again. He wasn’t just fighting against Nadal. I’ll be honest I didn’t know if he could do it myself, and Djoker is my fav among the big 3.
 
platypus50

platypus50

Rookie
Agree about Djoker vs Nadal 2018 Wim SF.

That 7-7 game in the 5th set was insane, Nadal had a sudden rush of blood to his head on the 3rd BP in that game with his poor CC BH approach shot. However, kudos to Djoker for being able to pull off that short angled CC FH passing shot for a winner against a charging Nadal.

I would also add in Nadal's win in 2022 AO final against Medvedev (from being down 2-6, 6-7, 2-3 0-40 to winning in 5) - I'm not a Nadal fan but congrats to him on this huge win.
 
N

Nadal - GOAT

Hall of Fame
D.Nalby12 said:
Pick just one match in which you believe the winner displayed best mental strength you ever seen.

My pick - Novak Djokovic W18 SF. The man just refused to lose on that day. Nadal was better player but thanks to Novak' insane mental strength he pulled off one of greatest wins of this era against a player who happens to be another mental giant. People often talk about his wins over Federer saving MPs but this win was more impressive IMO. Nadal didn't choke - he was outlasted mentally and physically by Djokovic.
Click to expand...
I agree that the W18 win was a great one for Novak. The match was very evenly contested and could have gone either ways. Though to me Novak's 2011 USO SF win against RF was his best display of mental strength. He had recently lost a close SF at FO where he was the favorite and faced 2 MP on Fed's serve at the USO. Also he didn't really have the mental edge over Fed yet like he did by Wimb 19. This to me is the turning point in Fed-Novak rivalry.

Rafa's best display of mental strength has to be the Wimb 08 F. He had lost a close encounter in 07 and was forced to a 5th Set despite being 2 sets up and having championship point in the 4th set. It was a great show of mental strength from him to play the way he did in the 5th set.
 
H

Herald

Guest
SamprasisGOAT said:
Sampras 2000 Wimbledon final. Injured and out of form Sampras breaks slam record and mentally gos into semi retirement m afterwards. Sampras was a set and a break down against a serious grass court player in rafter! Or how about USO QF 2001
Click to expand...
Yes, yes and yes! I can't seem to get people around here to understand how extraordinary Pete's run to break the record was. Instead of focusing on his painful injury that forced him not to practice between any of his matches and get injected prior just to numb the pain for an hour before it returned in the middle, and as you say, beating a great serve and volleyer in Pat Rafter to clench the win, it's "lol Volchkov". So sad.
 
SamprasisGOAT

SamprasisGOAT

Hall of Fame
Herald said:
Yes, yes and yes! I can't seem to get people around here to understand how extraordinary Pete's run to break the record was. Instead of focusing on his painful injury that forced him not to practice between any of his matches and get injected prior just to numb the pain for an hour before it returned in the middle, and as you say, beating a great serve and volleyer in Pat Rafter to clench the win, it's "lol Volchkov". So sad.
Click to expand...
How Many Wimbledons would rafter win 2016-2023 if his peak was in those years?
 
Last edited:
D

Deleted member 629564

Guest
D.Nalby12 said:
You could already see fear in Fed's eyes once he got to 40-15. Memories of 2011 USO were up there which crippled his mind so much that couldn't even hit ball inside of court.
Click to expand...
Why?

40-15 net-IN-OUT
40-30 IN-IN
40-40 OUT-IN-IN-IN-net
40-Ad IN-IN-net

8 INs, 2 OUTs, 3 nets
excluding 1st serves it's 8 balls in at 11 attempts, 72%

Born_to_slice said:
There's nothing easy about passing shot on a match point. Novak also hit it pretty close to the line and it it were not so good, Federer would have an relatively easy volley to put away.
Click to expand...
That ball was still in Federer's range. He should have played a volley there. Instead of that he went passive. Too passive.
 
Born_to_slice

Born_to_slice

Legend
threehandedbackhand said:
That ball was still in Federer's range. He should have played a volley there. Instead of that he went passive. Too passive.
Click to expand...
Nah. Federer made the biggest possible stride towards it and he came up just a little bit short because the ball was too precisely played. It was just amazing shot by Djokovic, to play it in a such controlled manner on a mp.
 
H

Herald

Guest
threehandedbackhand said:
Why?

40-15 net-IN-OUT
40-30 IN-IN
40-40 OUT-IN-IN-IN-net
40-Ad IN-IN-net

8 INs, 2 OUTs, 3 nets
excluding 1st serves it's 8 balls in at 11 attempts, 72%

That ball was still in Federer's range. He should have played a volley there. Instead of that he went passive. Too passive.
Click to expand...
And still a 0% conversion rate on match points
 
J

JasonZ

Hall of Fame
D.Nalby12 said:
It was more of Fed's choke than mental strength of Djokovic. You could already see fear in Fed's eyes once he got to 40-15. Memories of 2011 USO were up there which crippled his mind so much that couldn't even hit ball inside of court. That weak approach shot on second MP was just wishful thinking from Fed that Novak would land an easy passing shot out like Murray did in 2012 Final..
Click to expand...

djokovic also won all 3 tiebreaks and won like every big point of the match.
 
duaneeo

duaneeo

Legend
Federer's 2012 Indian Wells comes to mind. Federer last beat Nadal on outdoor hard in 2005. He was broken when serving for the match at 5-2. He served for the match a 2nd time at 5-4, and after winning a tense long rally to go up 40-30, it started raining! It took great mental strength for Roger to hit an ace against his nemesis and king-of-rain-delays after the short delay.

It was also a very important win for Roger, whose 2012 likely would've ended much differently had he blown that match.
 
abmk

abmk

Bionic Poster
Wimbledon 2019 was good, but getting way over-rated here.
Djoko wasn't good in 1st set TB. Merely solid in next 2. Needed fed to play below par in all 3.
Don't forget Djoko was up a break in the 5th set, got broken twice and went down 2 MPs on Fed's serve.
To break back from 2 MPs down was really clutch, but the only aspect that impressed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Big 3 best display of mental strength?
2
Replies
73
Views
1K
Adam Copeland
Adam Copeland
M
  • Poll
Which player would improve the most, Federer with Djokovic's mental strength or Djokovic with Federer's forehand?
2
Replies
51
Views
846
Megafanoftennis100
M
Nole_The_Champion
The secret of Novak's GOAT mental strength
Replies
23
Views
957
Deleted member 771911
D
TJfederer16
Strongest Mental Display at Grand Slams in the Past Decade?
2
Replies
61
Views
3K
mike danny
mike danny
N
Nadal's mental strength is overrated?
2
Replies
74
Views
6K
robert.s
R
Top