terribleIVAN
Hall of Fame
This also includes Agassi and Connors (8), McEnroe and Wilander (7) and Edberg and Becker (6).
Unreal.
Unreal.
Djokovic has won as many slams (8) after turning 31 than Lendl in his entire career
- Thread starter terribleIVAN
- Start date
I would even go as far as saying pathetic
D
Deleted member 771911
Guest
I don't get it. I don't see the significance that he did it after 31.
Tennis_Freak99
Legend
Awesome stuff! 
UnforcedTerror
Hall of Fame
Lendl couldn't complete the Career Grand Slam in his entire career while Djokovic did it in his 30s career.
TearTheRoofOff
G.O.A.T.
Some say unreal, others say hilarious. Same thing, I guess.
just another random stat that was supposed to show how great he is, when in fact it shows how pathetic his opposition is
beard
Legend
You are late boomer on forum... You should read some old threads...
if he is not in his prime now, do you have any idea why he wasn't this efficient in his prime which by definition is supposed to be higher performance?
Remember people were raving about Fed winning X slams after X year's old.
TearTheRoofOff
G.O.A.T.
It's still curious that the methods by which 30+ players can boost their levels compared to their ageing predecessors don't work for 20-25 year olds.
You really don't? The body slows down after 31, so it's a bit harder, don't you think?
Federer disagree, he is old since 2011. His age is main reason Djokovic owned him.
I guess the answer is because the 20-25 years old folks are pretty much kids by the freshly introduced 'tennis years' as opposed to calendar years
normally they would peak around 33-35 years old, but some of them get badly injured as kids, and fade out without every reaching the peak
No, it also works for teenagers. Becker winning at age 17. I wonder why you get more credit when your body is not at your peak?
TearTheRoofOff
G.O.A.T.
worked*
Now you need to be 30 innit. Maybe modern drugs take a decade to metabolize lol.Are you saying 25 year olds don't use drugs?worked*
TearTheRoofOff
G.O.A.T.
Er... No. I'm being facetious.
It the period 2012- 2014, he had 3 titles, 5 finals, 3 semis and one quarter final
He lost important matches more then compared to today. There were more players challenging him and Djokovic was less experienced and less sure of himself
Now he knows how to squeeze victory out of the matches whatever be the situation.
FO2021 final against tsitsipas , I think 2012 Djokovic would have lost. Now he manages the play better, is more calm confident and sure if himself even though he might be playing worse
terribleIVAN
Hall of Fame
Stem cells is the s**t.
junior74
Talk Tennis Guru
Federer at his very best and Djokovic at his very best is that same level; the highest ever in our sport all over (excluding Nadal at RG).
When one of them is a little below that level, he loses more often. That's what happened in their rivalry since Federer started declining, as I see it. If the age was reversed, Federer would likely have won more often. The age gap between the two is 6 years, that's a lot in tennis.
I think this is the key
more players capable to challenge him back then
and less players capable to challenge him now, if we are kind of diplomatically correct, cause in the real world out there, who can challenge him other than Nadal on clay? nobody
johnanderson
Banned
It is disgusting. The next gen and the ones before them are useless. All the praise we heard about people from 2010 on has amounted to nothing. Stan deserves tremendous commendation for doing it on 3 different surfaces (2 different HC) and Murray underperformed for his talent. If Fed wasn’t a dingbat, we wouldn’t have had to talk about JMDP for all these years. If he were not injured, it would be the same story. Nadal and Djokovic were just too good against him.
People don’t understand how this has killed the sport with these ridiculous wins Djokovic had at an old tennis age. Fed won most of his while young. Weak competition the last 8 years is an understatement. Nadal at RG is special so his winning the way he didn’t doesn’t deserve condemnation.
johnanderson
Banned
Absolutely true, however, Fed had match points on his serve at W and at the USO semi. He breakpoints in the fifth at W and break points to serve for the match (In 2014/2015). It’s not that Djokovic was beating him. Fed’s subpar level of play got him infinitesimally close to winning and he lost on his own racket. Fed deserves disdain for doing that.
disagree on Nadal on clay though
sure thing, he stands out, but as Nole showed at RG 2021, even he is a man
and Thiem and others defeated him en-route to RG, so it all goes down to their mentality and folding before the match, collectively
ibbi
G.O.A.T.
On this forum people love to talk about how you can't compare the game they play today to the one played in generations gone by. Well, the same absolutely applies to age related stats. It isn't specific to Djokovic, the great age shift is real.
27 used to be the age at which guys started trending downward. Half the guys today don't even get their careers going in earnest till they hit that number. Novak has won three quarters of his majors after it.
27 used to be the age at which guys started trending downward. Half the guys today don't even get their careers going in earnest till they hit that number. Novak has won three quarters of his majors after it.
if GAS is real, then how do you explain that beyond the Big 3, everyone else in top 10 is 22-27 years old
and the 27 years old is Thiem, who is long time contender to be the best among the rest of the tour except Big 3
wouldn't the GAS theory say that top 10 should be dominated by players 27+ years old?
Wawrinka, Isner, Gasquet, Monfils, Fognini, RBA, Cilic, Nishikori, Dimitrov, Goffin, Raonic, Schwartzman, they all should have been ranked above the guys that are 22-25 years old
From the whole reply, you picked up that one line , right?
Wimbledon final vs berretini.In the first set djokovic had a setpoint on Berretini serve, did not convert. Was serving for the set, lost the serve . Then lost the tiebreaker to loose the set
Currently Djokovic is able to manage this part better. He doesn't loose focus, doesn't get frustated, just keeps on playing cool , looking for further opportunities . This makes it harder for the opponent, because they have to win a set 3 times, rather than having a less confident player in second and third set. On the other hand as soon as Djokovic wins one set, the opponents confidence drop
Tsitsipas challenged him, took 2 sets.
Musetti took sets off him
Wimbledon 2019 with federer turned on single point.
Australian open final with Thiem went 5. But now everyone believes that if match goes 5 , Djokovic is not loosing it. Most importantly Djokovic belives that and plays accordingly
the most important one
and no, it's not about the match going to 5 sets, the youngsters fold before stepping the court
they can show some nice quality tennis when trailing behind, but as soon as they are leading, or have the chance to break back and equalize, then they sh*t their pants
So Djokovic has created an aura around himself. Which youngsters are not able to break through. Well some credit has to go to Djokovic for that.
FO semi final 2019 . Thiem defeats djokovic in 5 sets. Then loses in AO 2020 in 5 after leading 2-1
You can decide whether we can credit Djokovic for this or blame Thiem for it
Medvedev went 5 sets with Nadal in US open 2019. But lost to Djokovic in straight sets in 2021 AO. Again you can give Djokovic credit or blame Medvedev. Your choice
Fed had an aura as well, but Djokodal didn't care, they simply kicked his ass on the court
just like other youngsters didn't care about the aura of the top dogs they had to face
and that's the difference, last 3 generations of youngsters wait till Big 3 will retire, but some of them in fact retire before the Big 3 does
beard
Legend
You good man?
ibbi
G.O.A.T.
Things are trending a little more downwards now because contrary to the mockery we all like to pour on them the Next Gen are half decent.
Still, presumably none of them have played their best tennis yet, and they're all basically in their historic prime years now.
Thiem played the best tennis of his life at the age of 26/27, the entire significant part of Wawrinka's career was played from 27 onwards, the best years of Isner's entire career were from about 27-33, RBA's career didn't even get off the ground till he was 26, his career years were like 28-31, Fognini was of note earlier, but his best years were also about 26 to 31. La Monf played basically the best year of his entire life when he was 30, Schwartzman has also only really started playing his best stuff from like 26 onwards. What used to be the end of guys peaks is more and more starting to become the beginning.
The other guys you mention generally followed more traditional career trajectories, but even Cilic in 17-18 had a career boom period when he was pushing 30, and the fact that all of them are all still going at a decent level (when they're healthy) at an age when 90% of guys used to be all but finished is further proof that things are not as they once were.
long post that doesn't answer my question
so let's try once again, if GAS is real, then why Wawrinka, Isner, Gasquet, Monfils, Fognini, RBA, Cilic, Nishikori, Dimitrov, Goffin, Raonic, Schwartzman are not in top 10? but some 22-25 years old dudes dominate top 10, excluding the Big 3 players?
tennis_pro
Bionic Poster
7 Slams and one Berrettini Open.
ibbi
G.O.A.T.
The answer is because they're not as good (some of them never were, some of them are not anymore) as the guys ranked above them? The fact remains that they played their best/most successful tennis and were in fact ranked over younger guys after the age of 25. Take a look at the year end rankings from a few years ago and regularly see these guys you listed (and others) ranked over younger guys. They don't just indefinitely continue getting better as they get older.
mike danny
Bionic Poster
Add 2015 in there too. Those guys had stiffer competition than the 2015 field.
mike danny
Bionic Poster
or in other words it tells us that the younger guys weren't that good as to send them into retirement
again, if the next gen was not half decent, but 100% decent, or good, we'd probably not be talking about GAS, right?
which boils down to the weak competitive quality of the next gens, who are fine waiting till the older guys retire voluntaily
he is good, there is no discussion about it
but so was Fed when Djokodal popped up, and somehow Djokodal weren't ready to wait
and there are many other examples when the emerging youngsters weren't willing to wait till the great oldsters will voluntarily retire
Mileta Cekovic
Rookie
Djokovic is now clearly focusing on majors much more than in his prime.
In 2011-2016 period he won 11 GS, 4 TF and whooping 25 masters.
Form W2018 to W2021 he won 8 GS, 0 TF and only 6 masters.
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