Novak's first win over Fed was in their 5th meeting. Novak won in 3 sets after winning 2 tie breaks. Promptly thereafter at USO , he was beaten in straights.
If Novak existed from 2003, he would have won probably few best of 3's , I don't see any form of Novak to defeat Federer in a major between 2004-07. Infact Novak was there in 06 and 07 , ending the year with ranking 16 and 3. Everyone knows he was an early bloomer , yet he didnt win any big match against Fed and Rafa at majors.
So I guess the rest of my post doesn't matter then? You're just going to ignore the extremely strong correlation between beating Federer in a Masters final and having success against him overall?
Djokovic beat Federer the very next year at the Australian Open. Coincidence?
Nadal beats Federer almost every time they play. Coincidence?
How many times has Hewitt, Roddick, Blake, Ljubicic, etc ever beaten Federer in a slam? Never mind 2004-2007.
EVER? A combined zero times. Never. Not past his peak. Not during his peak. Not before his peak.
Never. And what do they all have in common? They never beat Federer in a Masters final.
Yet almost everyone that has managed to beat Federer in a Masters final has beaten him in a slam as well. Nadal, Murray, Nalbandian, Djokovic, etc. Coincidence? And since a Masters final is right up there with slam-level contention, it's pretty reasonable to conclude that Djokovic would have most certainly beaten Federer if he got to play him a bunch of times like Roddick did or Hewitt did.
After all I have explained, if you still don't think that a Masters final serves as a strong indicator as to how a player would fare against Federer overall (including slams), then I don't know what to say.
And I don't know why you're using Djokovic's "early bloomer" status as something against him. That makes absolutely NO sense.
Djokovic was the less experienced one. Why you're using that to slight him
while he was playing the most experienced player of all time is absurd. The fact that he was an early bloomer and STILL able to beat Federer in a Masters final says a lot.
The Safin example was to show that the only man that barely beat Fed at a major during those years spanked Novak thereafter.
OK? What does that have to do with this discussion? The topic is
Federer vs. other players, not
Djokovic vs other players.