Consider the surface. Consider the stage. Djokovic might mentally be off in a 250. But he won't in a Grand Slam. Verdasco felt the occasion in a 250. He will feel so much more pressure if he gets close to winning at a Grand Slam versus the 6 time winner and defending champion.
2005 USO Agassi >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2005 Puerta who
That's because Federer did not have to face any quality clay specialists apart from Rafa. He bumped into Kuerten at RG '04 and guess what happened...he went straight to the cleaners.Rubbish. Why do you want to make yourself look stupid?
Fed on clay from 05-11 > 05 Agassi
That Agassi was the one who struggled to beat Ginepri in the semi's LOL but he's greater than Fed who was only getting beat by Nadal on clay?
Funny how Fed peaked at RG in the year he didn't have to face Rafa
Agree whole heartedly that Thiem could not ask for a better draw. Goffin is a known and beatable quantity for Thiem. Goffin has not fared well recently. Goffin has it easy too as Thiem has been far from stable. A really weak group of players outside of these two especially given the slowness of the surface.This is a VERY weak part of the draw. Can see anyone here reaching the QF. Jordan Thompson even. I don't rate Thiem at all lately. Same with Goffin, Ivo and Lopez. Unseeded players are in for a ride here.
) is not the worst for Thiem as he was able to recently get a set off Dimigod at his best.
Nadal vs Zverev seems imminent and it seems unlikely Nadal will escape this time. Borna Coric was showing great signs before his knee injury (nice win over Kyrgios and thumped Nadal at the Real Slam, Cincy). A weakish, but balanced group. Florian Mayer net game with Nadal might be interesting.Nadal/Zverev with an easy 4R too. Some weak parts of the draw.
Monfils is meh, Kohlschreiber is nothing fantastic. Dolgo mixes form as does Coric.
Really true as Murray is the only top player that owns Zverev.
Djokovic would own him too
I'd probably rate Dimitrov and Zverev as the 3rd and 4th best players in the tournament. If they maintain and then gather momentum they will be a load for Djokovic. Zverev recently beat Wawrinka and Federer. Dimitrov just scalped three others from the top ten. Dimitrov in lesser form took a set from Djokovic in Paris and has beaten him before. Zverev and Djoko have never met.
Murray owns Pouille. Fed is the only road block. Wawrinka is no threat to an in form Murray. Despite winning US Open, Murray is much better down under and the reverse holds for Kei.Apart from a question mark behind Wawrinka, i agree. I would rate Wawa in beast-mode up there with Murray/Djoko. No idea where Federer stands either. Djoko might get som tough matches vs Fiasco R1, Dimi R4, and maybe Zverev later.I'd probably rate Dimitrov and Zverev as the 3rd and 4th best players in the tournament. If they maintain and then gather momentum they will be a load for Djokovic. Zverev recently beat Wawrinka and Federer. Dimitrov just scalped three others from the top ten. Dimitrov in lesser form took a set from Djokovic in Paris and has beaten him before. Zverev and Djoko have never met.
Dasco R1
Brown R2
Zverev R3
Nadal R4
Nishikori QF
Wawrinka SF
Murray F
Not possible given the seedings. Zverev QF would be earliest possible and tougher opponent than Nishi.
I'm not quite sure the key to Murray's success, but I believe he returns the Zverev first really well (Djokovic unlikely to do as well.) I could see Zverev getting in the drivers seat on the Djokovic serve games with his excellent first return. If Zverev continue's his fine play from the Fall and the end of the Hopman Cup, he'll be a load for Djokovic
Come on now, man stop trolling.
Nadal didn't win slams at 29-30 because he was too busy partying and acting like a celebrity to bother taking tennis seriously?
Federer has played nearly 360 matches at the slams, and over 1,300 matches in his career.
Roger has nothing more to prove because he's widely considered the greatest tennis player of all time. Any more wins are just a bonus.
And Lendl/Borg/Sampras wouldn't have won the same amount of slams playing in this era against the big 4, and Nadal wouldn't have won 9 RG playing alongside with Borg. The weak era goes around in circle. The only thing that count is career achievements.
Majority among the fans, tennis historians/journalists, and ex-players.
OMGI'd probably rate Dimitrov and Zverev as the 3rd and 4th best players in the tournament. If they maintain and then gather momentum they will be a load for Djokovic. Zverev recently beat Wawrinka and Federer. Dimitrov just scalped three others from the top ten. Dimitrov in lesser form took a set from Djokovic in Paris and has beaten him before. Zverev and Djoko have never met.
OMG
Then who is widely considered the greatest player of all time?
If you're familiar with Meles' posts, he does have a tendency to be, ahem... overly enthusiastic about the new generation of players in particular.
Actually I think it's everyone else who has got in the mindset that the big 4 will dominate forever, and are immediately cynical about a young gun making a claim to the throne. Honestly I think most of the community here are about to get a very rude awakening when it becomes evident that the big 4 are pretty much a spent force at the slams. Of course, everyone will act like they saw it coming by that point.
Pretty much.
I never said there's a clear consensus or anything absolute.
He's at the top of the list, but the list is always distorted by recency bias.There is never any consensus on anything. Yow couldn't get all people to agree that Nutella is best eaten without bread with just a spoon and we all know it is!
However, I am positive Fed would be clearly on top of the Goat debate if you asked the public, I am very confident he'd be on top if you asked say the first 1000 ranked players on ATP, and I am quite sure most historians would or will place him top.
No consensus, I completely agree, but a clear majority extremely likely. And if that is good enough to pick parliaments and presidents, well...
I'm quoting this the next time Murray crushes Zverev.
I used to rip on Dimitrov pretty hard and he's lost generation.If you're familiar with Meles' posts, he does have a tendency to be, ahem... overly enthusiastic about the new generation of players in particular.
Thiem has really leveled off as a player, but will slowly improve with time as he acquires more strength and stamina. At this point Thiem is underrated by expectations. We've already had the epic:
After the brilliant arm chair analysis from infrequent tennis watchers at the French Open Thiem went on and immediately won Stuttgart with a pretty bad drubbing of Fed along the way.
