Meles
Bionic Poster
This is not some jinx thread against sinner, but on paper he's poised to exceed Federer's 2004:
1. Both turn 23 years old in August of their respective years (the start of their primes)
2. Both through the Sunshine double have won one major and one masters and one ATP 500.
3. Sinner has only lost once so far to Alcaraz in Indian Wells SF taking the first set at arguably Alcaraz's best tournament. Fed lost to Henman in Rotterdam and a very young Rafa (his kryptonite) in Miami.
4. Federer by this stage of the year had played a lot more including two Davis Cup ties (5 set matches
) and actually won't play again until Hamburg and Rome (back to back one week masters 1000 like the Madrid/Rome). Federer lost early in Rome which allowed him to win Hamburg.
5. Sinner has managed his schedule rather nicely and will be able to play Monte Carlo this week and has the added luxury that Madrid and Rome are now two week events, so he may be able to widen his lead in this race despite Federer arguably being the better clay court player.
6. Federer lost early to Kuerten at RG (straight sets) so Sinner seems highly likely to best this unless he has the bad luck of drawing a resurgent Nadal early in the event.
7. Granted Sinner is not #1 yet, but he has managed to leap to #2 and already it has paid off as Alcaraz and Djokovic are in the other half of the Monte Carlo draw.
8. Sinner has the better hard court stats winning 56% of points to 55% of points and even more importantly the gap is due to betterer serve numbers. Imagine Fed's serve game from 2006-2007 married to 2004's return game.
9. Federer was humiliated by a young Berdych at the 2004 Olympics.
10. Sinner gets on court coaching while Federer was more of a mind to completely ignore his coaches altogether.
Monte Carlo will really be critical for Sinner since he's in danger of slipping back to #3, but Alcaraz has a forearm injury affecting his serve and forehand. The field potentially may be much stronger in 2024 if:
1. Nadal is able to compete (Nadal was out of RG in 2004 and both masters)
2. Zverev has a good clay season (a grueling opponent)... and Zverev has a chance of passing Medvedev for #4 seed at RG if Medvedev has a poor clay season.
Don't let the eye test deceive you; much of the Federer mystique was his new found mastery of poly on faster surfaces while some of his top competition was still using gut. To be sure his game looked amazing, but it had weaknesses whereas Sinner has none. Where Sinner excels over Federer (and the other Big 3 members) is his unprecendented timing plus the fact that this package comes from a player three inches taller than Federer. You can't really see serve stats with an eye test, but serves win slams and other big tournaments because big servers tend to have shorter, less grueling matches. Sinner may easily have the most balanced game of all for winning with Sampras level serving combined with peak Federer returning. With his run in Miami the US Open seems a distinct possibility, his timing will aid him greatly on grass, and so if he somehow turns out to be more formidable on clay than expected even the Calendar slam is not out of reach.
1. Both turn 23 years old in August of their respective years (the start of their primes)
2. Both through the Sunshine double have won one major and one masters and one ATP 500.
3. Sinner has only lost once so far to Alcaraz in Indian Wells SF taking the first set at arguably Alcaraz's best tournament. Fed lost to Henman in Rotterdam and a very young Rafa (his kryptonite) in Miami.
4. Federer by this stage of the year had played a lot more including two Davis Cup ties (5 set matches
) and actually won't play again until Hamburg and Rome (back to back one week masters 1000 like the Madrid/Rome). Federer lost early in Rome which allowed him to win Hamburg.5. Sinner has managed his schedule rather nicely and will be able to play Monte Carlo this week and has the added luxury that Madrid and Rome are now two week events, so he may be able to widen his lead in this race despite Federer arguably being the better clay court player.
6. Federer lost early to Kuerten at RG (straight sets) so Sinner seems highly likely to best this unless he has the bad luck of drawing a resurgent Nadal early in the event.
7. Granted Sinner is not #1 yet, but he has managed to leap to #2 and already it has paid off as Alcaraz and Djokovic are in the other half of the Monte Carlo draw.
8. Sinner has the better hard court stats winning 56% of points to 55% of points and even more importantly the gap is due to betterer serve numbers. Imagine Fed's serve game from 2006-2007 married to 2004's return game.
9. Federer was humiliated by a young Berdych at the 2004 Olympics.
10. Sinner gets on court coaching while Federer was more of a mind to completely ignore his coaches altogether.
Monte Carlo will really be critical for Sinner since he's in danger of slipping back to #3, but Alcaraz has a forearm injury affecting his serve and forehand. The field potentially may be much stronger in 2024 if:
1. Nadal is able to compete (Nadal was out of RG in 2004 and both masters)
2. Zverev has a good clay season (a grueling opponent)... and Zverev has a chance of passing Medvedev for #4 seed at RG if Medvedev has a poor clay season.
Don't let the eye test deceive you; much of the Federer mystique was his new found mastery of poly on faster surfaces while some of his top competition was still using gut. To be sure his game looked amazing, but it had weaknesses whereas Sinner has none. Where Sinner excels over Federer (and the other Big 3 members) is his unprecendented timing plus the fact that this package comes from a player three inches taller than Federer. You can't really see serve stats with an eye test, but serves win slams and other big tournaments because big servers tend to have shorter, less grueling matches. Sinner may easily have the most balanced game of all for winning with Sampras level serving combined with peak Federer returning. With his run in Miami the US Open seems a distinct possibility, his timing will aid him greatly on grass, and so if he somehow turns out to be more formidable on clay than expected even the Calendar slam is not out of reach.
