Winner Sinner
Hall of Fame
At the slam level, who do you think between Federer, Nadal and Djokovic has achieved less than they could have?
This is also probably an unoriginal topic, I suppose, discussed several times in the past, where I imagine that the most popular answer is Federer, both because all things considered, although he is considered by many to be the most talented, he is the one who has collected the least, but also and above all for the many occasions in which he has wasted match points, such as the two semifinals with Djokovic at the 2010 and 2011 US Open, the one at the 2005 Australian Open with Safin, and obviously the famous final with Djokovic at Wimbledon 2019.
Or thinking about the finals in which he was clearly favored and then lost in the fifth set with Del Potro at the 2009 US Open, and those with Nadal at Wimbledon 2008 and at the 2009 Australian Open.
And yet, and this is the excuse why I opened this thread, I am not so convinced that the answer must necessarily be Federer.
Nadal is the player of the Big Three currently with the longer duration career at the top level, having started winning slams in 2005 until 2022, yet of the three he is also the player who has played the fewest slams overall, the vast majority missed due to injury.
Finally Djokovic, here it is enough to mention in addition to 2017 "lost" due to an elbow problem when he could still potentially be in his peak period, but above all the covid effect that essentially cost him 3 slams in which he would have been the big favorite, respectively Wimbledon 2020 canceled and Australian Open and Us Open 2022, to which we add the 2020 edition of the Us Open where he was disqualified.
That said, the problem with similar dilemmas for retroactive purposes is always the same as ignoring the cause and effect component, i.e. like the Nadal example, ignoring the fact that he was the one of the 3 who missed the most slams due to injuries, but those injuries came precisely because he pushed his body too hard, which on the one hand made him miss many slams, but on the other hand allowed him to win 22.
Or in the case of Djokovic, if there hadn't been covid he would most likely have won all or the vast majority of the slams mentioned above, but at the same time we can't rule out that by doing so he might have arrived at the beginning of 2023 more physically and mentally worn out, ergo, if Djokovic had won all those slams that he was forced to miss due to covid then we can't even rule out that he would still have had the brilliance to achieve what he achieved in 2023.
In short, it's like a dog chasing its tail.
This is also probably an unoriginal topic, I suppose, discussed several times in the past, where I imagine that the most popular answer is Federer, both because all things considered, although he is considered by many to be the most talented, he is the one who has collected the least, but also and above all for the many occasions in which he has wasted match points, such as the two semifinals with Djokovic at the 2010 and 2011 US Open, the one at the 2005 Australian Open with Safin, and obviously the famous final with Djokovic at Wimbledon 2019.
Or thinking about the finals in which he was clearly favored and then lost in the fifth set with Del Potro at the 2009 US Open, and those with Nadal at Wimbledon 2008 and at the 2009 Australian Open.
And yet, and this is the excuse why I opened this thread, I am not so convinced that the answer must necessarily be Federer.
Nadal is the player of the Big Three currently with the longer duration career at the top level, having started winning slams in 2005 until 2022, yet of the three he is also the player who has played the fewest slams overall, the vast majority missed due to injury.
Finally Djokovic, here it is enough to mention in addition to 2017 "lost" due to an elbow problem when he could still potentially be in his peak period, but above all the covid effect that essentially cost him 3 slams in which he would have been the big favorite, respectively Wimbledon 2020 canceled and Australian Open and Us Open 2022, to which we add the 2020 edition of the Us Open where he was disqualified.
That said, the problem with similar dilemmas for retroactive purposes is always the same as ignoring the cause and effect component, i.e. like the Nadal example, ignoring the fact that he was the one of the 3 who missed the most slams due to injuries, but those injuries came precisely because he pushed his body too hard, which on the one hand made him miss many slams, but on the other hand allowed him to win 22.
Or in the case of Djokovic, if there hadn't been covid he would most likely have won all or the vast majority of the slams mentioned above, but at the same time we can't rule out that by doing so he might have arrived at the beginning of 2023 more physically and mentally worn out, ergo, if Djokovic had won all those slams that he was forced to miss due to covid then we can't even rule out that he would still have had the brilliance to achieve what he achieved in 2023.
In short, it's like a dog chasing its tail.