Best Davis Cup player this era

Best Davis Cup player


  • Total voters
    51

Breaker

Legend
Who in your opinion is the best Davis Cup player of this era?

Records

Rafael Nadal
Overall: 14-5
Singles: 12-1
Doubles: 2-4
Clay: 12-2 Carpet: 1-2 Hard: 1-1 Grass: 0-0
Titles: 2 (possibly 3 after this weekend).
Ties played: 10

Lleyton Hewitt
Overall: 39-12
Singles: 33-9
Doubles: 6-3
Clay: 9-6 Carpet: 2-0 Hard: 16-1 Grass: 12-5
Titles: 2
Ties played: 27

Marat Safin
Overall: 31-21
Singles: 21-15
Doubles: 10-6
Clay: 15-8 Carpet: 13-5 Hard: 3-6 Grass: 0-2
Titles: 2
Ties played: 23

Andy Roddick
Overall: 31-11
Singles: 31-11
Doubles: 0-0
Clay: 6-9 Carpet: 2-0 Hard: 19-2 Grass: 4-0
Titles: 1
Ties played: 23

Ivan Ljubicic (ret. 2007)
Overall: 36-18
Singles: 23-12
Doubles: 13-6
Clay: 10-7 Carpet: 20-5 Hard: 6-6 Grass: 0-0
Titles won: 1
Ties played: 21


David Nalbandian
Overall: 27-9
Singles: 17-4
Doubles: 10-5
Clay: 16-2 Carpet: 5-5 Hard: 3-2 Grass: 3-0
Titles: 0
Ties played: 16

Roger Federer
Overall: 37-11
Singles: 27-6
Doubles: 10-5
Clay: 12-3 Carpet: 11-5 Hard: 14-3 Grass: 0-0
Titles: 0
Ties played: 18
 
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akv89

Hall of Fame
I would think its between Roddick and Hewitt. None of the others have participated as much as these two and also been as successful as them.
 

Breaker

Legend
I would think its between Roddick and Hewitt. None of the others have participated as much as these two and also been as successful as them.

Outside of clay Roddick seems almost invincible in Davis Cup, that makes Ljubicic's display in Croatia's title winning year even more impressive as he beat Roddick on a hard court.
 

Blinkism

Legend
If Spain wins this year, I'd say it's Nadal - 3 DC titles in the decade.

Who else participated in 2 winning final round campaigns with their team and assisted in another winning campaign?

Not to mention the fact that Nadal's first DC campaign was 2004, which he won! That's 5 years into the decade! Roddick, Hewitt, and Federer have head starts on him. And he still managed to amass a current 13 match singles winning streak across clay, hardcourts, and carpets! And who else won DC on their first try?

Not bad!
 
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T

TheMagicianOfPrecision

Guest
If Spain wins this year, I'd say it's Nadal - 3 DC titles in the decade.

Who else participated in 2 winning final round campaigns with their team and assisted in another winning campaign?

Not to mention the fact that Nadal's first DC campaign was 2004, which he won! That's 5 years into the decade! Roddick, Hewitt, and Federer have head starts on him. And he still managed to amass a current 13 match singles winning streak across clay, hardcourts, and carpets! And who else won DC on their first try?

Not bad!

It would be an amazing achievment by Spain if they ever FAILED to win the Davis Cup with a team like that.
 

stapler

Professional
While Nadal surely contributed tremendouly to Spain's two titles won during his time playing for them (I dunno if he did, just trying to make a point), I feel that titles is a deceiving stat for best Davis Cup player of this era. A single player can't win Davis Cup themselves, they require a well put together team, and as such, even if there was a player who was the best singles player in the world and always won the singles rubbers he played in, unless he had a team that could back up his wins with wins of their own, he wouldn't have any titles, but still would be best DC player.
 
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It would be an amazing achievment by Spain if they ever FAILED to win the Davis Cup with a team like that.


Word. It's not like it's JUST Nadal. They did pretty well w/o him last yr. Where as Switzerland has no squad w/o Roger, Australia has/had no squad w/o Hewitt, and America has no squad w/o Roddick (and possibly the Bryans).
 

Cantankersore

Semi-Pro
Records don't really mean much, you really have to look at the competition and surfaces and such. I'm going to go with Rafa though. Let's be honest, he brought Spain from very good to dominant.
 

namelessone

Legend
We can't compare because there are too many variables in DC. How can you compare a 23 year old like Rafa,who has seen 5 years of DC action to veterans like Hewitt and Roddick with tons of ties under their belt? The spanish team is a bunch of overall good players but who can't make that last push in the big tourneys,with the exception of Rafa of course. They have a nice mix of stars(Nadal,Verdasco),grinders(Ferrer),veterans(Robredo,JCF) and even guys who can do a little S&V like Lopez,not to mention other "outsiders" like Almagro.

Rafa is more of a stabilizing factor for these guys,it's not like he is the sole quality player in the spanish team but the other guys rely on him for at least 1 win,if not two and they know that if he is healthy we will come. Having someone like Nadal on your team really boosts your confidence. The best example of these guys sticking together is what the spanish did in argieland last year when everybody was all doom and gloom and figured that they would be crushed but they didn't. They wanted to show that they could do it without Rafa(because he is such an accomplished player compared to his spanish peer) and they did. So the Spanish DC team can do it without Rafa but they feel much more comfortable having him around. Just look how well they get along and how much they support each other.

To answer the OP's question: for me it is a toss-up between hewitt and rafa.
 
Huh. I'd probably say Ljubicic.

Not because his record was necessarily better than that of the other contenders, but because he basically single-handedly won an entire Davis Cup. From world group playoffs all the way to the final, there were a grand total of *two* live rubbers won by somebody other than Ivan Ljubicic.

(In the playoffs, they won their first three rubbers, so Ancic won his. In the finals, Ljubicic actually lost a live rubber (his only one that year) and so Ancic's fifth rubber was live, which he won. Those are the only two times, from playoffs to final, when there was a deviation from the "Ljubicic wins his first match, Ancic loses his first match. Ljubicic/Ancic win the doubles and then Ljubicic wins his last singles" pattern. )

So sure, overall his record isn't as great as, say, Nadal's. But I don't think anybody in this generation has been quite so instrumental to a team's success as Ljubicic in that year.
 

Breaker

Legend
Huh. I'd probably say Ljubicic.

Not because his record was necessarily better than that of the other contenders, but because he basically single-handedly won an entire Davis Cup. From world group playoffs all the way to the final, there were a grand total of *two* live rubbers won by somebody other than Ivan Ljubicic.

(In the playoffs, they won their first three rubbers, so Ancic won his. In the finals, Ljubicic actually lost a live rubber (his only one that year) and so Ancic's fifth rubber was live, which he won. Those are the only two times, from playoffs to final, when there was a deviation from the "Ljubicic wins his first match, Ancic loses his first match. Ljubicic/Ancic win the doubles and then Ljubicic wins his last singles" pattern. )

So sure, overall his record isn't as great as, say, Nadal's. But I don't think anybody in this generation has been quite so instrumental to a team's success as Ljubicic in that year.

Yeah that was one of the greatest single Davis Cup performances of all time. Top 3 easily. His wins against the USA were particularly impressive as he didn't have a great hard court record going in and Roddick/Blake were at their peak level and performing great on hard courts. Ancic being mentally weak and not up to it until that final match made them important wins as well, no room for error in any of those matches.
 

mtr1

Professional
Tim Henman:)

15-4 in singles rubbers this decade, and had to put up with the grinning ape that is Greg Rusedski whilst doing it, fantastic achievement.
 

vive le beau jeu !

Talk Tennis Guru
nadal's record is misleading: he only shows up against liechstenstein or nauru, when it's on clay.
for instance, where was he against USA and argentina on fast indoor courts ?

from the list of the poll, i'd say roddick and hewitt, who regularly play... even if hewitt's record is a bit less brillant now that he keeps playing despite having declined...
 

Anaconda

Hall of Fame
Yeah that was one of the greatest single Davis Cup performances of all time. Top 3 easily. His wins against the USA were particularly impressive as he didn't have a great hard court record going in and Roddick/Blake were at their peak level and performing great on hard courts. Ancic being mentally weak and not up to it until that final match made them important wins as well, no room for error in any of those matches.

Oh yeah!!!

James blake's peak on hard court was in 2006 - hence the QF at the Us open - and could have beaten Federer in that match as he wasted crucial chances. Blake might have won that event if he had beaten Federer. No way is Ljubicic beating blake at blakes prime in 2006.

As for Roddick, his peak level on hard was in 2003 and he beat Ljubicic at the Open, 2005 was a good year for Roddick but i think they met in 2005 when Roddick was in 'the beginning of the bad days'.
 

fps

Legend
Oh yeah!!!

James blake's peak on hard court was in 2006 - hence the QF at the Us open - and could have beaten Federer in that match as he wasted crucial chances. Blake might have won that event if he had beaten Federer. No way is Ljubicic beating blake at blakes prime in 2006.

As for Roddick, his peak level on hard was in 2003 and he beat Ljubicic at the Open, 2005 was a good year for Roddick but i think they met in 2005 when Roddick was in 'the beginning of the bad days'.

Roddick is a better hardcourt player now than he was in 2003.
 

Anaconda

Hall of Fame
Roddick is a better hardcourt player now than he was in 2003.

Oh yeah, because Isner would have knocked out Roddick at USopen 2003 if they played in 3rd round.

Roddick played the best tournament he has ever played this year at wimbledon, but he was a superior player in 2003/04 and parts of 2005.
 

clayman2000

Hall of Fame
As for the Roddick loss to Isner, I think we can all agree that his 2 losses to JMDP rattled him. He played 2 great tournies, and forced the soon-to-be USO King to 3 sets. 1 of them he lost in a 3rd set breaker where JDMP served 4 aces. The other was 7-5 3rd, Roddick had MP's there.

As wee see, he then lost to inferior big men
 

Sartorius

Hall of Fame
At this day, Best Davis Cup Player is, I would say, the one who has this statistics: Clay: 9-6 Carpet: 2-0 Hard: 16-1 Grass: 12-5

Not this: Clay: 12-2 Carpet: 1-2 Hard: 1-1 Grass: 0-0
 

Anaconda

Hall of Fame
As for the Roddick loss to Isner, I think we can all agree that his 2 losses to JMDP rattled him. He played 2 great tournies, and forced the soon-to-be USO King to 3 sets. 1 of them he lost in a 3rd set breaker where JDMP served 4 aces. The other was 7-5 3rd, Roddick had MP's there.

As wee see, he then lost to inferior big men

Roddick also has winning records over most big people (minus JMDP)
 

veroniquem

Bionic Poster
We can't compare because there are too many variables in DC. How can you compare a 23 year old like Rafa,who has seen 5 years of DC action to veterans like Hewitt and Roddick with tons of ties under their belt?



Great remark. I'd have to say Nadal because who else contributed to 3 DC victories at only 23? That's impressive but of course at his age Rafa can't have played as many matches as guys who are almost 30.
It's not Rafa's fault either if he never had the opportunity to play DC on grass. Given that he's won both Queen's and Wimbledon by beating the best grass court players of his time (Roddick and Federer), there's no doubt he would have won his matches on that surface too.
 

kOaMaster

Hall of Fame
so far...hm, hewitt, ljubicic, nadal? hard to say. nadal did not play often enough and has a team that could "easily" win without him too. of course, 3 titles is impressive, but I don't think he's the best so far. he's not good enough in doubles yet to be there.
 
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