4 Losses - Federer and Nadal - More Damaging to their Career

[McEnroeisanartist]

What do you think has been more damaging to their career and legacy:

Federer's 4 losses to Nadal outside of the French Open - 2008 Wimbledon, 2009 Australian Open, 2012 Australian Open and 2014 Australian Open

Or Nadal's 4 losses to players ranked 100 or lower at Wimbledon from 2012-2015?

Federer is losing to an all time great, perhaps the 2nd greatest player of all time. Nadal is losing to nobodies. But it seems like this message board thinks Federer's losses are worse. Weird.

 

[BGod]

You also have to note Federer's losses to Nadal past 30 are essentially ignorable.

I've brought up the Connors/Lendl "rivalry" which saw Lendl win their last 17 meetings. At some point, it really doesn't matter if the younger player in his prime beats the previous generation's legend. He's suppose to. Like when Agassi was beating up on Connors in the late 80s or McEnroe in the early 90s. How many people actually saw those losses as meaning anything to McEnroe and Connors in the grand scheme?

Right now the Nadal/Federer mania is huge, but 15 years from now? Their later match-ups are going to become trivial information. Here's a rundown of the big Nadal/Federer matches people will remember:

2006 French Open
2007 Wimbledon
2008 Wimbledon
2009 Australian
2010 WTF

Not that many will even recall their WTF meetings but Federer fans might bring them up to counter the H2H bashing.

 

[falstaff78]

Frankly I think Federer's losses to Delpo in 09 and Safin in 05 had a more negative effect than the 12 and 14 losses to Nadal. In terms of how much greater he could have been if he'd had those wins:

• four straight 3-major-years from 04-07
• five 3-major-years in total counting 09
• the Federer Slam (FO 09 - AO 10)
• 6 straight US open wins
• sole possession of the USO record
• longest ever win streak at a major (the US streak would have reached 45 by the time he reached Djokovic in the 2010 USO SF)
• joint possession of the AO record (5, with Djokovic)
• 4 straight AOs
• a streak of 4 or better at 3 majors (which is just ridiculous)

All of this from just 2 matches. In one of which he had 5-2 in a 4th set tie break, with two serves to come, to win the match (AO 2005) and in one of which he had 30-0 serving for a 2 sets to love lead!!!!!!

Boggles the mind how he has achieved so much, and yet felt so agonizingly short of so much more!!!!

 

[Chanwan]

Legacy wise, it's the losses to Rafa. If for nothing else, because 2 of them would have been slam wins had he won.

 

[BGod]

Frankly I think Federer's losses to Delpo in 09 and Safin in 05 had a more negative effect than the 12 and 14 losses to Nadal. In terms of how much greater he could have been if he'd had those wins:

• four straight 3-major-years from 04-07
• five 3-major-years in total counting 09
• the Federer Slam (FO 09 - AO 10)
• 6 straight US open wins
• sole possession of the USO record
• longest ever win streak at a major (the US streak would have reached 45 by the time he reached Djokovic in the 2010 USO SF)
• joint possession of the AO record (5, with Djokovic)
• 4 straight AOs
• a streak of 4 or better at 3 majors (which is just ridiculous)

All of this from just 2 matches. In one of which he had 5-2 in a 4th set tie break, with two serves to come, to win the match (AO 2005) and in one of which he had 30-0 serving for a 2 sets to love lead!!!!!!

Boggles the mind how he has achieved so much, and yet felt so agonizingly short of so much more!!!!

Well no kidding but I was just going off the OP.

Federer's two losses to Safin and Del Potro are head and shoulders worse than any of the Nadal defeats.

 

[tennisaddict]

Losses in early rounds don't mean anything. Great players show their mettle in big finals.

 

[falstaff78]

Well no kidding but I was just going off the OP.

Federer's two losses to Safin and Del Potro are head and shoulders worse than any of the Nadal defeats.

IMHO it's a toss-up between those two and the AO 2009. Consider:

• Fed slam (US 08 - WIM 09)
• Majors for 8 consecutive yrs becomes the record, Nadal's run is broken
• prevents Nadal career slam and bolsters his eventual 17-14 lead over nadz to 18-13
• 5 AOs joint leader
• 4th 3-major-year
• With a Grand Slam on the line, potentially plays delpo less obstinately in the USO 2009 final - I got the distinct feeling throughout the 4th set that he was refusing to back down from a baseline war that he was palpably losing - a strategic shortcoming he would be forced to abandon a few years later (although I recognize this one's a stretch)

 

[BGod]

IMHO it's a toss-up between those two and the AO 2009. Consider:

• Fed slam (US 08 - WIM 09)
• Majors for 8 consecutive yrs becomes the record, Nadal's run is broken
• prevents Nadal career slam and bolsters his eventual 17-14 lead over nadz to 18-13
• 5 AOs joint leader
• 4th 3-major-year
• With a Grand Slam on the line, potentially plays delpo less obstinately in the USO 2009 final - I got the distinct feeling throughout the 4th set that he was refusing to back down from a baseline war that he was palpably losing - a strategic shortcoming he would be forced to abandon a few years later (although I recognize this one's a stretch)

The 2005 Aussie Open is absolutely #1 worst defeat.

I see your point with the 09 Final but that WAS to Nadal who had broken through and already ravaged Federer's mind. Losing to Del Potro up 2-1 is a hell of a lot less explainable.

 

[falstaff78]

The 2005 Aussie Open is absolutely #1 worst defeat.

I see your point with the 09 Final but that WAS to Nadal who had broken through and already ravaged Federer's mind. Losing to Del Potro up 2-1 is a hell of a lot less explainable.

I see what you mean. You are coming at it from the perspective of "it should never have happened" whereas my metric is "how much was the impact of the loss".

For your metric I agree completely.