If Federer does not win London Olympics
 

Does it relegate him to permanent non-GOATdom considering that Rio is too far away and Nadal has the Golden Career Slam and winning H2H?

Yes, because winning an Olympic gold medal in tennis is the single most important achievement in the history of tennis. His 17 slams, record number of weeks at number 1, and record consecutive weeks at number 1 all pale in comparison to winning a minor tournament like the Olympics.

No.

10 "nooooos".

Not at all, without doubt the best player in the world to date. If raffa could stay fit I'd fancy his chances of getting close but injures will stop that.

I will consider Nadal to be the GOAT if Fed does not win this Olympics.

Not at all, winning a 750 or not doesn't really affect Fed's career/legacy at this point, it's not like he's a young player breaking through or something.

He'll just win another WTF instead which is worth twice as much :D

I really can't see a reasonable explanation to answer that tbh. A great great player yes, but not goat at all.

Roger :D and Rafa :D both have very different Olympic histories. :-P If Federer does not win a medal in 2012, he will not have won any singles medals in 4 attempts, while Rafa will have won 1 Olympic singles gold medal in 1 attempt.

I'm afraid not Suresh, see Nadal didn't even reach Cinci final yet:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=282818

:)

Suresh is just trolling. He considers Nadal GOAT anyway in spite of knowing that he can never be the GOAT without winning Cincinnati.

Good point.

I would have to also consider Agassi to be greater than Federer due to his Golden Career Slam.

Sureshs, so if dojokovic won the French open and held all 4 at once, then won this Olympics, you would also class him as the goat??? You will be tipping henman for the us open next

Good going suresh. But you can't surpass ***. You just can't.

And with this, we shall close the thread. Best possible reply.

I would then look at Djokovic, Agassi and Nadal and decide.

But definitely Federer would not figure in the discussions. Variety counts, not just Slams. once all Slams have been won once. Olympics is its own thing with its own atmosphere, and is the only joint sports event for the entire world. It is the only platform where a champion of one sport can compete with the champion of another sport on a world-wide scale to show he is the master of his specialization.

Sorry about that, but Rafa has had two chances. Just because you choose not to play the Olympics doesn't mean you didn't have a chance to. I bet you see Nadal as a back to back Wimbledon champion also.

Of course not. It wasn't even taken seriously until recently, he has a Gold medal in doubles anyway, and it's just a fact that 6 World Tour Finals > an Olympic Gold.

Not participating in a tournament is not an official attempt. If he's not in the draw, he didn't participate. Whereas Federer participated in all of his, suffering embarrassing losses each time. :oops:

This seems like a very silly way of judging. He has won an olympic gold medal has he not? If anything, it shows he is a greater player for the fact it's in doubles and shows how varied his play is.