While I agree that Borg is better on clay, I disagree about Djokovic not being able to push him at RG or defeat him. He pushed Nadal to the brink in 2013, the best clay courter of all time who uses full poly, won only 9 less points in 2012 and beat him twice in 2015 and 2021. I don't see Lendl, Wilander, Bruguera or Courier defeating Nadal twice at RG. You also said Djokovic doesn't have a fall back weapon like the forehand of others so it makes him vulnerable and that's why he lost in 2011. He beat Federer in a baseline duel in 2011 at RG and went forehand to forehand with him successfully, but the problem was he wasn't able to serve like Federer. That's really where the match was lost because he couldn't serve out the 4th set, and his forehand was brilliant that day over his rather average backhand. He can adapt his game to about any opponent even on clay and we saw him outhit Nadal in 2021. So yea overall, his forehand may not be considered the point ender like some others but I disagree that that makes him vulnerable.
Obviously I was talking peak to peak in one lose-or-go-home showdown. In an old-fashioned H2H series Novak would get his share of wins, but then that's true for just about every other elite dirtballer. And even here he'd need some help from Borg. If GOATing Ice-Borg shows up it's a guaranteed W for him.
Also you make too much of Novak's two Ws over Rafa at RG. '15 and '21 were by far Nadal's worst CC seasons since '05 where he barely made
the 60% Club with only
60.7% and 60.1% in GW% respectively. That's not just subpar by his own sky-high standards, but scarcely above or roughly equal to what former non-FO champs averaged in
their best seasons. I seriously doubt this Rafa would be very competitive vs. the actual multi-FOers who at their best turned in more dominating performances. Hell I'll go a step further and say peak Mac, Boris, Stefan and Pistol would have a good chance of beating him as well (especially Mac).
'13 was definitely a stronger Rafa, but again by his own standards a rather mediocre one with 62.9% for the season (padded with favorable stats from Vina del Mar, Sao Paulo and Acapulco before IW) and 60.9% at RG. Compare that with Courier's 66.1% and 63.8% in the '92 and '93 CC seasons proper, or
Bruguera's historic 68.8% at '93 RG (including
that battle of the titans vs. said Courier) or even 64.3% at '94 RG. And both boast a big topspin-heavy FH which would let him dictate rallies on clay even vs. top-notch baseliners like Novak, plus loads of shot tolerance that could rival Borg's and Nadal's. Still like my earlier call of these guys beating Djoker peak to peak in 4.
You did make a strong point about Novak losing only 9 more points in the '12 final as that was no doubt one of Rafa's 3 or 4 best versions - that year he did win a career-best seasonal 68.2%, but underperformed at RG with "only" 71.0% vs. 75.7% in '08 and career-high 76.8% in '17 - but the match still ended in 4, no? Big matches like this are usually decided on big points and that's precisely what happened here.
I dunno if you've ever perused
that career overview of Novak's GW%s on clay, but the one constant that jumps out at you is that his #s are remarkably steady without fluctuating much. By contrast Ivan, Jim and Sergi had at least one or two monster seasons where they displayed historic dominance, and while Guga was more up and down the type of comprehensive beatdown he delivered on Ferrero at '01 RG is a feat Novak has yet to duplicate on a fellow 60%er of a similar caliber (yes this JFC was at least a notch above '15 Rafa, with a whopping 66% vs. 60.6% at RG).
Again Novak's rock-solid consistency comes at a cost. I mean even Rafa was a bit too defensive early in his career which is why he was dropping sets to the likes of Grosjean, Mathieu and (past-prime) Hewitt, but once he found the right balance between O and D starting around '07 he became the unstoppable GCOAT he know him as today. Yes the extra aggression also meant an extra loss here and there, but that extra risk-taking would come in handy come RG where he could/would go out without worrying about the rest of the season. You may have noticed that Novak's fellow multi-FOers would improve upon their seasonal GW%s at RG, often by startling degrees, but with him it's almost the opposite. Much of that has to do with Novak's robotic (I don't mean that pejoratively) game which demands next to no deviation from the mean, yes, but it also strongly suggests that he doesn't have the extra gear to fall back on, which is confirmed by my admittedly subjective eye test. You qualified his loss in the '11 SF earlier by pointing to Fed's red-hot serve, but serve is part of the game even on clay and I was factoring it in when I said the other multi-FOers would've been better equipped to survive the onslaught. And they're simply more natural dirtballers to begin with, hence my ranking them higher except, again, Courier who now stands right next to Djoker.
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