clout
Hall of Fame
To answer OP there were a variety of reasons.
Competition: As a Fed fan I won't deny it, the field got a lot stronger during Fed's late 20s/early 30s than it was during his early/mid 20s. Nadal was beginning to become an all-court player which made things 10x worse for Fed, Djokovic also became an imminent threat very quickly, Murray was a headache match-up for Fed for a while, Del Potro never makes things easy for the Maestro, and guys like Berdych/Tsonga/Soderling/Cilic are all incredibly tough match-ups for anyone whenever they're zoning, which they were able to do against Fed various times.
Math/statistics: The numbers Fed was putting up during the mid 2000s was practically unsustainable. No one can go 80-4 every year and the fact that he was able to do so for like 3-4 years straight is incredible - I don't think we'll ever see anything like that ever again.
Age: This had more to do with the later years as he was still in his prime between 2008-2012, but from 2014/15 onward, when you're in your mid/late 30s going up against ATGs like Djokovic who are 6 years your junior, you should have no business winning any of those matches.
I'd say competition was the biggest factor during 2008-2014. Nearly every player Fed lost to at slams/BO5 during these 6 years were born between 1984-1988, which is one of the greatest birth year stretches in men's tennis history (he lost 6x to Nadal, 6x to Djokovic, 2x to Murray (including OLY), 1x to Del Potro, 2x to Berdych, 2x to Tsonga, 1x to Soderling, 1x to Cilic, 1x to Lord Gulbis)
Since around 2014/15 though, it's been his age, I mean c'mon the dude's out here chugging around in his mid/late 30s lol the fact that he won any major or spent any # of seconds as number 1 is unheard of
Competition: As a Fed fan I won't deny it, the field got a lot stronger during Fed's late 20s/early 30s than it was during his early/mid 20s. Nadal was beginning to become an all-court player which made things 10x worse for Fed, Djokovic also became an imminent threat very quickly, Murray was a headache match-up for Fed for a while, Del Potro never makes things easy for the Maestro, and guys like Berdych/Tsonga/Soderling/Cilic are all incredibly tough match-ups for anyone whenever they're zoning, which they were able to do against Fed various times.
Math/statistics: The numbers Fed was putting up during the mid 2000s was practically unsustainable. No one can go 80-4 every year and the fact that he was able to do so for like 3-4 years straight is incredible - I don't think we'll ever see anything like that ever again.
Age: This had more to do with the later years as he was still in his prime between 2008-2012, but from 2014/15 onward, when you're in your mid/late 30s going up against ATGs like Djokovic who are 6 years your junior, you should have no business winning any of those matches.
I'd say competition was the biggest factor during 2008-2014. Nearly every player Fed lost to at slams/BO5 during these 6 years were born between 1984-1988, which is one of the greatest birth year stretches in men's tennis history (he lost 6x to Nadal, 6x to Djokovic, 2x to Murray (including OLY), 1x to Del Potro, 2x to Berdych, 2x to Tsonga, 1x to Soderling, 1x to Cilic, 1x to Lord Gulbis)
Since around 2014/15 though, it's been his age, I mean c'mon the dude's out here chugging around in his mid/late 30s lol the fact that he won any major or spent any # of seconds as number 1 is unheard of
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