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My article was written from a U.S. perspective for a U.S.-themed publication, and so I was referring to American (NFL) style football, rather than soccer. You are correct that the article was densely written. I definitely intended it for a more-educated-than-average audience, and would have...

Well, I would say my article acknowledges that the scenario is far-fetched; after all, I compare myself to Don Quixote in pushing the idea of a world-in-which-tennis-supplants-football, and acknowledge that if tennis *were* to make a cultural upswing, it might not go altogether the way I would...

Among some summer writing projects I've undertaken, I punched out this article and sent it to a few outlets, and have just gotten it published (I suggested a saucier title like "On Tennis Supremacy" or "In the Cause of Tennis," but perhaps this editor's choice is better)...

Peak Federer had some losses in which none of those things applied. Notably, in Majors, we have the: -2004 French Open third-round loss to Kuerten -2005 Australian Open semifinal to Safin (he did make a stupid decision to go for the trick shot on his match point in the fourth set tiebreak when...

I've learned so very much about tennis from the last couple dozen posts here.

This thread amuses me.

You say "Wimbledon (4)," but only list three (2009, 2010, 2016)-- and indeed, there were only three.

I would say the field was quite stacked in the early-mid '90s with Sampras, Agassi, Becker, Edberg, Courier, etc. all in competition at or near the top, but by '98, most of that depth had evaporated with the holdovers from the late '80s retiring, Agassi off on a drug-addled sabbatical from...

True enough. Wrong choice of words on my part.

Well, three of the seven players you first list (Agassi, Ferrero, and Roddick) won their titles in 2003, then there was one "surprise" winner per year in '04 and '05 (Gaudio, Safin) before Federer and Nadal swept everything in '06-07, so I think it could be argued that the decline in variation...

I do think this Indian Wells run was close to a peak-level Federer performance. He didn't lose a set, lost only one service game in the tournament, blitzed Nadal, and soundly defeated an in-form Wawrinka in the final. 2004-2007 Federer was remarkable for his level of play, but even more...

If you're arbitrarily excluding the year with his worst win-loss average, then you're not using Federer's win-loss record from 2011-2017. If we allowed Sampras the same luxury and threw out 1998, he would come out at 354-63 for an 84.89% winning average (which, note, was actually thus his...

First, Sampras was not "12-13 years past his prime"-- more like 10 years past his peak. He was five years retired, but went out winning a Major title in his last tournament before retirement. He was still in shape and playing regularly, even if no longer on the main tour, and I strongly suspect...

The way many people on these forums speak, one would think it was better to lose in the first round than record a runner-up finish, since that doesn't blemish one's all-determinative record in Major finals.

No, Roddick had Berdych (strong former and future top 10 player and and the following year's Wimbledon runner-up) in the Round of 16, Hewitt (resurgent former world #1 and Wimbledon champion) in the quarterfinals, Murray (world #3, future world number one and two-time Wimbledon champion) in the...

Well, I haven't carefully tallied the respective points breakdowns of the top players, but considering that even in the second half of last season, Djokovic still managed a Canada title, US Open runner-up, and Year-End Championship runner-up (a subpar set of accomplishments for a Djokovic...

Well, I think there is no reasonably disputing that Federer and Nadal's styles clash in a way that tends to favor Nadal independent of surface-- consider that a teenage Nadal beat a prime Federer at 2004 Miami, that the two are 10-10 in career non-clay-court meetings in spite of the fact that...

Regarding Roddick's comments about the relative importance of "match-ups" relative to "form," did he clarify exactly what things he included under the umbrellas of those terms? If we define "match-up" as consisting purely of the interaction of the two athletes' styles of play, then I agree that...

Roddick holding a 5-4 head-to-head advantage over Djokovic is quite significant considering how much greater a player Djokovic is overall-- in fact, Roddick is currently the *only* player in ATP history who has met Djokovic more than three times in tour-level matches and has a winning career...

Well, Wawrinka has only ever beaten Federer on clay, with Federer holding a 13-0 lead on hardcourts, so there does seem to be ample support in the record for faster courts and/or hardcourts working to Federer's advantage against him. Just looking at their Grand Slam meetings since the time of...

A quarterfinal is not an "early exit." He reached the final eight and lost to a world-elite player. Murray's round-of-16 result at this event was still better than Djokovic's round-of-64, and Murray's current slate of Grand Slam results stands at *title/runner-up/quarterfinal/round-of-16,* with...

This isn't a true apples-to-apples comparison, because Federer has played drastically tougher competition in the first four rounds this year due to his drop in seeding.

I think there is a strong anachronistic/presentist bias at play in this thread. Going into Wimbledon 2012, Nadal had been to the last five Major finals, the last 11 Major quarterfinals, and the finals of the last five Wimbledons he had competed in. He was in his prime and seemed to have been on...

A year suspension over this would be ridiculous. He made some dirty and classless remarks; he didn't hit or threaten anyone, test positive for a performance enhancing drug, or do anything on that scale. I think it would have been reasonable to default him from his next match in Montreal, and...

I hope you're feeling better now. Like I said, Murray's win over Djokovic was a long time coming. Djokovic has been having a great season, and has consistently been in form when he's met Murray prior to yesterday's match. Murray also failed to beat Djokovic all year prior to the summer hardcourt...

I think the fair cut-off point for the Federer era has it ending along with his semifinal streak at the 2010 French Open. Prior to that, he had just reached eight consecutive Slam finals and won four of them; clearly he was still the overall dominant figure in tennis until then. From the 2010...

"Undisputable," how? Nadal in 2008 had two Grand Slam titles and two semifinals (match record 24-2), while Federer had one title, two runner-ups, and a semifinal (match record 24-3). Federer in 2009 had two Grand Slam titles and two runner-ups (match record 26-2), while Nadal had one title, one...

The sentence begun in the title, "If doping is rife in athletics, then..." is never finished, but in context it obviously means to imply something to the effect of "then it is rife in tennis." I tend to think tennis is likely to be much cleaner than a sport like cycling or track-and-field in...

I would love to see Roddick make a comeback on tour, provided he went back to playing aggressive baseline tennis instead of the grinding style that predominated the second half of his career-- he was able to do that pretty effectively in 2006-2010 (though his best moments still came when he...

If Federer's serve were coming underhand and all I had to do was hit a return or rally ball that touched the ground in order to win a point, I imagine I could win games, but I have little to no frame of reference, since I've never set foot on court with anyone remotely close to his level.