Djokovics worst slam, RG or USO?

Djokovics worst slam?

  • Total voters
    65
Cortana

Cortana

Legend
People often argue about RG being the worst slam of Djokovic, but is that really the case? If we look back:

2022: Defeated by Nadal
2021: Beaten Nadal, won the tournament
2020: Defeated by Nadal
2019: Defeated by Theim
2018: Still recovering
2017: Injured
2016: Won the tournament
2015: Beaten Nadal, but lost to Wawrinka
2014: Defeated by Nadal
2013: Defeated by Nadal
2012: Defeated by Nadal

Without Nadal he would be at 6-7 RG easily. It was just impossible to amass more titles here when the other guy wins it almost every time. He could be the 2nd best clay court player of all time, despite not showing the results. This isn‘t a discussion about him being an ATG on clay btw.

On the other side he clearly underperformed at USO. Lost 2 out of 3 matches to the inferior HC player that wasn‘t able to beat him on HC since 2013 ever again. Has a 33% final conversion rate in total.

So which is truely his worst slam?
 
jl809

jl809

Hall of Fame
0 USO titles from 2012-2014 and 0 since 2018 is clear underperformance imo. Plus choking in 07. Even his peak was not convincing as he nearly lost to postprime Fed and let Old Fed have so many BPs across so many games

He’s just let far too much rubbish go on there. Honestly think he would have beaten Med in 21 if he’d started crying / confronted the emotion in general sooner

RG he was just beaten by the better player every single time and has done well to get 2. Should have finalled in 19 too.
 
abmk

abmk

Bionic Poster
Easy. RG.
Djokovic level in USO 11, USO 12 before the final, USO 15 better than any RG level from him.
He has far more good wins the USO than at RG. His best win at RG vs a good opponent in good form is what? tsonga in RG 12.
he beat federer in USO 11 and nadal as well.
 
RS

RS

Bionic Poster
Who played at a higher level?

1. Djokovic USO 11 or Djokovic RG 13
2. Djokovic RG 14 or Nadal Wim 18
3. Djokovic USO 07 or Djokovic RG 15
4. Djokovic USO 15 or Djokovic RG 16
5. Federer AO 17 or Djokovic RG 14
 
Biotic

Biotic

Hall of Fame
He made so many deep runs at RG because of the weakest clay era ever (2004-present), and made so many deep runs at USO in in spite of the strong HC era.

And it's not like anybody has won 10+ USOs. He really should've won 2012 only and he'd be fine.
 
ibbi

ibbi

G.O.A.T.
It's not a simple conversation to have, one way or the other. It's easy to say that if you remove all the losses to Nadal in Paris over the course of a decade and a half he would have a bunch of titles there, and no single guy has stood in his way in New York like that since the 2000s, but I don't think it's that simple.

Like, he's been a semi-final or better guy in New York since 2007, and even his worst loss there (Nishikori) is not as bad(ish) as his Kohli and Melzer losses in Paris.

We can't even make much of a comparison between the two during his two-year garbage run because he missed one of the two US Open's, and the 2016 run was kind of a joke. He was still moderately decent at Roland Garros those two years.

Anyway, I'd go with US Open, it's a hard court, he's meant to be the king of them, there is no Nadal in his way to anything like the same degree there.

You take all that into account I find it tough to not pick it, and I appreciate there have been bans and disqualifications you have to take into account that have nothing to do with tennis that have stood in the way of his success there, but it's all relative.
 
CoolCoolCool

CoolCoolCool

Hall of Fame
MichaelNadal said:
Yeah, 6 slam minimum if not for the tribal chief lol OBVIOUSLY
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You're triggered because you feel like it indirectly downplays Rafa?

Djoker reached 9 finals at USO, that's more than the amount of finals he will ever play at RG. Rafa was the only thing standing between Djoker and the RG trophy because the competition as a whole on clay wasn't as dangerous as it was on HC.
 
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
CoolCoolCool said:
You're triggered because you feel like it indirectly downplays Rafa?

Djoker reached 9 finals at USO, that's more than the amount of finals he will ever play at RG. Rafa was the only thing standing between Djoker and the RG trophy because the competition as a whole on clay wasn't as dangerous as it was on HC.
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”Triggered” lol sure. He would have more titles at RG than the USO without Nadal, all the other talk is unnecessary. Nadal is also the reason NADAL has more US Open titles than Djokovic so I win your little contest either way ;) you do have a point, Nadal was dangerous indeed at Flushing :D
 
RF-18

RF-18

Talk Tennis Guru
Djokovic has the most USO finals in Open Era. More than Lendl, Federer, Sampras. Only Bill Tilden in history of USO has more finals than Djokovic. He is one of the greatest USO players all things considered. RG is his weakest slam, but then his record there is also unbelieveable but definitely weaker than USO.
 
CoolCoolCool

CoolCoolCool

Hall of Fame
MichaelNadal said:
”Triggered” lol sure. He would have more titles at RG than the USO without Nadal, all the other talk is unnecessary. Nadal is also the reason NADAL has more US Open titles than Djokovic so I win your little contest either way ;) you do have a point, Nadal was dangerous indeed at Flushing :D
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What contest do you win exactly? I don't remember comparing Djoker and Rafa at USO. Why always trying to start something even when there's no provocation? You should know what kind of poster I am at this point.

NatF said:
How do you know I meant he overachieved at RG? ;)
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Because I doubt you'd call 3 USO titles overachievement when we talk about Djoker lol.
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Talk Tennis Guru
RF-18 said:
Djokovic has the most USO finals in Open Era. More than Lendl, Federer, Sampras. Only Bill Tilden in history of USO has more finals than Djokovic. He is one of the greatest USO players all things considered. RG is his weakest slam, but then his record there is also unbelieveable but definitely weaker than USO.
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Thank you. Let common sense prevail. If Nole could have turned 1 of the USO finals around which is hell lot easier than turning any RG final he lost around, he would be among USO greatest. But even today his USO which he missed once , boneheadedly got dqd once and even banned once is much better than RG statistically. With his first venture to a slam final at USOpen he started his slam dominance. His third final was again USOpen, didn't reach a slam final since AO 2008. And he was just beaten by Federer in 07/08/09. If going by op logic then Djokovic would have 3 usopens before 2010 itself as we just have to remove Federer.

I think it's really disrespectful to Djokovic's legacy at USOpen that it's getting even compared to his legacy at RG.

RG is all fine and well and I would love to see him win more RG but it's not his turf. When it comes to hc then he is the best, not clay. No.
 
RF-18

RF-18

Talk Tennis Guru
nachiket nolefam said:
Thank you. Let common sense prevail. If Nole could have turned 1 of the USO finals around which is hell lot easier than turning any RG final he lost around, he would be among USO greatest. But even today his USO which he missed once , boneheadedly got dqd once and even banned once is much better than RG statistically. With his first venture to a slam final at USOpen he started his slam dominance. His third final was again USOpen, didn't reach a slam final since AO 2008. And he was just beaten by Federer in 07/08/09. If going by op logic then Djokovic would have 3 usopens before 2010 itself as we just have to remove Federer.

I think it's really disrespectful to Djokovic's legacy at USOpen that it's getting even compared to his legacy at RG.

RG is all fine and well and I would love to see him win more RG but it's not his turf. When it comes to hc then he is the best, not clay. No.
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Yeah spot on.

I have hard time finding how this could even be a comparison.
 
MichaelNadal

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
RF-18 said:
Yeah spot on.

I have hard time finding how this could even be a comparison.
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Yeah I think im convinced. Novak is far better at the US open than RG :D

Nadal1--621x414.jpg
 
S

StrongRule

Talk Tennis Guru
nachiket nolefam said:
Thank you. Let common sense prevail. If Nole could have turned 1 of the USO finals around which is hell lot easier than turning any RG final he lost around, he would be among USO greatest. But even today his USO which he missed once , boneheadedly got dqd once and even banned once is much better than RG statistically. With his first venture to a slam final at USOpen he started his slam dominance. His third final was again USOpen, didn't reach a slam final since AO 2008. And he was just beaten by Federer in 07/08/09. If going by op logic then Djokovic would have 3 usopens before 2010 itself as we just have to remove Federer.

I think it's really disrespectful to Djokovic's legacy at USOpen that it's getting even compared to his legacy at RG.

RG is all fine and well and I would love to see him win more RG but it's not his turf. When it comes to hc then he is the best, not clay. No.
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Not in USO. He was never the best there.
 
S

Sampras-Bruguera 1993

Legend
French. He really hasn’t played the US open much to win slams due to the COVID debacle there and then got hosed out of the tournament for hitting grandma who should have retired back in the flapper era with a tennis ball. He’s played the French dang near every year and only has two slams there
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Talk Tennis Guru
If Novak reached 2022 USOpen final he can lose that as well. He has done huge disservice to his legacy at USOpen flopping so many finals.
 
Aestheticsaboveallelse

Aestheticsaboveallelse

Legend
Sampras-Bruguera 1993 said:
French. He really hasn’t played the US open much to win slams due to the COVID debacle there and then got hosed out of the tournament for hitting grandma who should have retired back in the flapper era with a tennis ball. He’s played the French dang near every year and only has two slams there
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What? He has had his entire career to win a bunch of us opens... He just sucks there whereas he's very hard to beat on slow clay. USO is the opposite of his dead lifeless AO pet slam

He was also severely struggling with busta when he got dq'd for lineslady... same guy who made him go medal less in olympics
 
S

Sampras-Bruguera 1993

Legend
Aestheticsaboveallelse said:
What? He has had his entire career to win a bunch of us opens... He just sucks there whereas he's very hard to beat on slow clay. USO is the opposite of his dead lifeless AO pet slam
Click to expand...

He’s hardly played there since 2018 or something. Except 2021 and he was basically gassed there going for a calendar slam. I can’t hold that completely against him. If you hardly play that you can’t win it. He’s been playing the French every year
 
Fabresque

Fabresque

Legend
A couple RG’s in the Nadal era isn’t overachieving or underachieving for a GOAT level player. Federer only had one but was also reaching many finals/semifinals.

He clearly underachieved at the US Open. These last few years have been a great opportunity to grab a few since 2018.

2019: Injury v Wawrinka
2020: Default v Carreno
2021: Final loss v Medvedev
2022: DNP

In 3 of these years he’s just been purely unlucky. Something always just went against him. But he also never seriously prepared for the US Open imo. And that’s on him, how many times he’s pulled out of Cincinatti, Canada, sometimes both, instead of playing them.
 
Aestheticsaboveallelse

Aestheticsaboveallelse

Legend
Sampras-Bruguera 1993 said:
He’s hardly played there since 2018 or something. Except 2021 and he was basically gassed there going for a calendar slam. I can’t hold that completely against him. If you hardly play that you can’t win it. He’s been playing the French every year
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True but he has a very long career. I just think he plays his worst at USO of all the slams very clearly. Also this might be him focusing on USO the least knowing its his worst chance
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Talk Tennis Guru
RG 2 slams 4 finals 5 semis , total 85-16
USO 3 slams 6 finals 3 semis , total 79-12 (removing 2020 3 wins)

He played semis and better 1 more time but was banned once and dqed once and missed once.
Final or better 3 times, banned once dqed once and missed once.
1 more title.
More wins vs big 3 1 vs Nadal 3 vs Federer compared to 1 Federer and 2 Nadal

He achieved more in USopen in 3 less showings than at RG. Not just peak level, more consistency as well. Since 2007 Djokovic has lost to these guys
Federer Nadal Murray Nishikori Wawrinka Medvedev
All are top 10 and except Nishikori all were top 5.

Vs at RG
Nadal Kohlscriber Melzer Federer Wawrinka Ceccinato Thiem
 
T

tudwell

G.O.A.T.
His base level at US Open is higher but he's also underperformed there to a much greater extent than at Roland Garros. Depends on what you mean by "worst", I suppose.
 
nolefam_2024

nolefam_2024

Talk Tennis Guru
tudwell said:
His base level at US Open is higher but he's also underperformed there to a much greater extent than at Roland Garros. Depends on what you mean by "worst", I suppose.
Click to expand...
But what is underperforming. If he reached 9 finals the highest ever, then isn't that better than 6 at RG.
 
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