Best individual season of Open Era?

[TheFifthSet]

Originally Posted by tennis_pro

Sampras losses in 1993:
- Edberg at the AO (straight sets)
- 33-year old Lendl in Philadelphia (straight sets)
- 22nd ranked Volkov in Indian Wells (straight sets)
- 87th ranked Eltingh (who? that doubles specialist?) in Atlanta (straight sets)
- Ivanisevic in Rome (straight sets)
- Bruguera in Rome (straight sets - 6-3 6-1 to be exact)
- Bruguera at the French Open
- Grant Stafford (who?) ranked 110th in Queen's on grass
- Brett Steven (who?) ranked 45th in Canada (straight sets)
- Edberg in Cincinnati
- Rafter (who was ranked 139th and half the man he became in 1997) in Indianopolis
- Costa (Carlos Costa) in Stockholm, for the record he was ranked 30th something which ain't shocking in Sampras' career. Now if Federer lost to a guy ranked 30th in his prime, the haters would be blowing all horns.
- Ivanisevic in Paris
- Stich at the Tour Finals
- Kodra in the Grand Slam Cup


Obviously, Sampras' competition will look stiffer if he has issues winning sets against pensioners and guys ranked outside the top 100. Also, there pretty much goes Sampras mental fortitude, out of the 15 losses he suffered in 1993 as many as 13 have been straight sets. What a fighter Sampras was!

Now compare it to Federer.

4 losses to Nadal - all 4 competitive (3 on clay)
1 loss to a teenage Murray in straight sets, a match I remember well as Federer was exhausted after winning Canada

You beat me to it, nice work.

[edberg505]

Originally Posted by tennis_pro

Sampras losses in 1993:
- Edberg at the AO (straight sets)
- 33-year old Lendl in Philadelphia (straight sets)
- 22nd ranked Volkov in Indian Wells (straight sets)
- 87th ranked Eltingh (who? that doubles specialist?) in Atlanta (straight sets)
- Ivanisevic in Rome (straight sets)
- Bruguera in Rome (straight sets - 6-3 6-1 to be exact)
- Bruguera at the French Open
- Grant Stafford (who?) ranked 110th in Queen's on grass
- Brett Steven (who?) ranked 45th in Canada (straight sets)
- Edberg in Cincinnati
- Rafter (who was ranked 139th and half the man he became in 1997) in Indianopolis
- Costa (Carlos Costa) in Stockholm, for the record he was ranked 30th something which ain't shocking in Sampras' career. Now if Federer lost to a guy ranked 30th in his prime, the haters would be blowing all horns.
- Ivanisevic in Paris
- Stich at the Tour Finals
- Kodra in the Grand Slam Cup


Obviously, Sampras' competition will look stiffer if he has issues winning sets against pensioners and guys ranked outside the top 100. Also, there pretty much goes Sampras mental fortitude, out of the 15 losses he suffered in 1993 as many as 8 have been straight sets. What a fighter Sampras was!

Now compare it to Federer.

4 losses to Nadal - all 4 competitive (3 on clay)
1 loss to a teenage Murray in straight sets, a match I remember well as Federer was exhausted after winning Canada

Now that was ownage in its purest form! Well done!

[Gizo]

Originally Posted by kiki

Thanks for posting about Ivan´s great 86, I feel it is one of the best pro seasons ever.

Yes it was an amazing year, and he was so consistent. That year he entered 15 official tournaments, won 9 of them, was a runner-up 3 times and a losing semi-finalist twice. The only tournament he lost early in was Toronto, but that was to Curren who was very dangerous and could beat anyone. His W/L record was 74-6 that year, with his defeats coming to Becker 3 times, Edberg, Noah and Curren. So he didn't have any 'bad' defeats that year.

He only dropped one set at RG, one set at US Open, and didn't lose any sets at the Masters where he destroyed Wilander, Edberg and Becker.

Maybe you could argue that his 1987 was better. He beat Wilander in the RG/US Open finals instead of Pernfors and Mecir, and beat Edberg at Wimbledon. However that year he lost to guys like David Pate and Peter Lundgren, won one less title and lost one more match. Still a great year of course, but I think his 1986 was slightly better.

As for Borg, in 78 took Rome,Paris and London and made the New York finals while in 79, he won the Masters, a bigger event than the Italian Open and reached the WCT finals which were big but not as much as the USO final he reached in 78.

In 1980, he won Masters,Roland Garros and Wimbledon ( for the third consecutive Channel Slam) and played the USO finals, so 1980 might have been a bit better...still, I don´t think he played as well as in 1979, which IMo was the year he reached his peakest level.

Yes he probably had tougher competition in 1980, as McEnroe was better, I personally that Connors played better in 1980 than 1979, and Lendl had improved.

Still in 1979 the tennis he played was just incredible.

[kiki]

Originally Posted by Gizo

Yes it was an amazing year, and he was so consistent. That year he entered 15 official tournaments, won 9 of them, was a runner-up 3 times and a losing semi-finalist twice. The only tournament he lost early in was Toronto, but that was to Curren who was very dangerous and could beat anyone. His W/L record was 74-6 that year, with his defeats coming to Becker 3 times, Edberg, Noah and Curren. So he didn't have any 'bad' defeats that year.

He only dropped one set at RG, one set at US Open, and at the Masters destroyed Wilander, Edberg and Becker in straight sets.

Maybe you could argue that his 1987 was better. He beat Wilander in the RG/US Open finals instead of Pernfors and Mecir, and beat Edberg at Wimbledon. However that year he lost to guys like David Pate and Peter Lundgren, won one less title and lost one more match. Still a great year of course, but I think his 1986 was slightly better.



Yes he probably had tougher competition in 1980, as McEnroe was better, I personally that Connors played better in 1980 than 1979, and Lendl had improved.

Still in 1979 the tennis he played was just incredible.

Hard to say about which year is better, 86 or 87.In 82, he won the 10 WCT events he entered plus the three season ending events at Dallas,Naples and Detroit, beating Mac,Kriek and Vilas.He also won a bunch of GP titles, although lost a few ones to Vilas and Wilander.The fact that he did not win a Gran Slam event in 82 makes that year look average, but it was just a great one.

As for Borg, hard to say which event is the best he ever played, although in the 79 Masters he beat, day in day off, the nº 5 (Tanner) nº 2 (Connors) nº 3 (Mc Enroe) and nº 4 (Gerulaitis) players of the world and next year, he´d beat nº 2 (Mc Enroe) nº 3 (Connors) nº 4 (Lendl) and nº 5 (Clerc).That is simply amazing, considering the level of those players, and the fact that he had to do it day in, day out.

[NadalAgassi]

Originally Posted by tennis_pro

Nadal at the end of 2006 had achieved more than Becker at the end of 1988 and they were roughly the same age.

Wilander had the luck to avoid them tons of times in 1988, he only played Becker once in the Masters and lost that match. He also lost to Edberg in the same tournament, beat him at the AO and Cincinnati, though. Wilander only faced Lendl once in 1988, in the final of the US Open which was a legit win. Now compare it to what Djokovic had to do in 2011 to achieve the same heights - he had to beat Federer and Nadal like 10 times combined, not to mention his record against the rest of the field including Murray, Roddick, Soderling, Tsonga or Berdych.

Becker was not a consistent contender on anything but fast grass and carpet before 1989 so I dont find Wilander lucky to avoid Becker. He was luckier to not play Lendl as much maybe but then Lendl kept having bad losses (for him) in all the big events, he just wasnt playing that well for his standards that year, and Wilander was just the better player and playing the better tennis that year, and solidified that for certain with his U.S Open final win over Lendl.

[Vcore89]

Anyone like Steffi Graf's Golden Slam has the best individual season in the Open Era!

Will have to wait for the next man or woman to achieve it.

Golden Slam. The best next thing is calendar slam, then 3 slams in diminishing order, etc

[Vcore89]

Originally Posted by tennis_pro

Nadal at the end of 2006 had achieved more than Becker at the end of 1988 and they were roughly the same age.

Aside from Michael Chang, Becker was the second youngest grand slam winner ever. That alone trumps Rafa's achievement.

[RAFA2005RG]

Nobody will ever trump Rafa. 2010 clay-grass-hard slam titles.

[kOaMaster]

how about
navratilova?
1983 98.9% (86–1) single season match winning percentage

[Russeljones]

Originally Posted by RAFA2005RG

Nobody will ever trump Rafa.

You're begging to be Rosol'ed.

[TennisLovaLova]

Soderling 2012

[Gonzo_style]

I think Djokovic 2011 season is the best, crushing Fedal like no one before

[RF20Lennon]

Originally Posted by Gonzo_style

crushing Fedal like no one before

Yes losing to a 30 year old in RG and a point away from losing in USO was extremely crushing

[smoledman]

Honestly Fed's 2004 was the most dominating season since Laver's 1969. Then Fed did 2006 which was a step better.

[Gonzo_style]

Originally Posted by RF20Lennon

Yes losing to a 30 year old in RG and a point away from losing in USO was extremely crushing

How many times you wrote 30 year old or 31 year old?

Djokovic-Fedal 10-1

[Prisoner of Birth]

Originally Posted by Gonzo_style

How many times you wrote 30 year old or 31 year old?

Djokovic-Fedal 10-1

[Polvorin]

Originally Posted by smoledman

You can argue Nadal's 2008 is equivalent to 2010 because the gold medal = a slam.

Someone go inform Nicolas Massu that he's a slam winner. Seriously, try not to make statements like that...it makes you lose credibility.

[TMF]

Nadal 2008 is equal to Roger 2009

[NDFM]

Originally Posted by TMF

Nadal 2008 is equal to Roger 2009

i hope that's a good thing then, they both achieved great things in those respective years

[TMF]

Originally Posted by NDFM

i hope that's a good thing then, they both achieved great things in those respective years

Yes, nadal won his 1st hc slam + gold medal. Fed won a career slam + broke Pete's 14 slam record.