Do you think Djokovic will overtake Nadal as #2 next year?

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stapler

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I think he has a great shot to do so, at least for the early part of the year. Djokovic had a decent beginning of the year (though a bit slow, perhaps due in part to the racket change), but it's definitely something he can, and will improve upon if he carries his current form into next year. However, the big factor will be Nadal. He is defending both the AO and the first masters of the year (along with 2 of the following 3), and unless Nadal completely turns around his current form, he's going to lose a lot of point. It will be fun to see how this unravels next year.
 
someone will if he continues to play this way. He is getting pushed around and that big defensive short spin game is not hurting people as much. Unless I am really off by a lot, he will fall at least one ranking point next year and maybe two.
 
Djokovic will eventually be number 2. I really can't see Nadal challenging Djokovic on any surface other than clay to be honest. Djokovic seems to be getting faster and stronger every match he plays. Credit to Djokovic for raising his game to another level.
 
Conquistador said:
Djokovic will eventually be number 2. I really can't see Nadal challenging Djokovic on any surface other than clay to be honest. Djokovic seems to be getting faster and stronger every match he plays. Credit to Djokovic for raising his game to another level.
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Nadal is a much better grass court player than Djokovic.
 
TMF said:
Yes, but don’t anticipate him continue to do well b/c nothing is for certain. Look at what happened to him at RG, his best surface.
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Still my main point is that Nadal is clearly favored over Djokovic on both clay and grass right now. Faster hard courts Djokovic has the edge. Slower hard courts you could debate, it is hard to say. Although if Nadal truly wont get back to his 2008-early 2009 level then it would be Djokovic there too.
 
Ultimately Djokovic has to prove his mettle more in the slams to have any chance of overtaking Federer or Nadal in the rankings. He is one of my favorite players, and I am thrilled to see him playing so well again, but that is just the reality. He was a great performer in slams when he was up and coming as a top 3 player. Reaching the semis or better of 5 straight slams including a title and runner up. Since that embarassing loss to Safin at Wimbledon last year he has only been to the semis of 2 slams though.
 
Nadal has a lot of points to defend over the winter/spring hardcourt season compared to Djokovic. I see Novak stealing the #2 ranking as I think he'll improve on his quarterfinal showing at the AO while it will be very difficult for Nadal to defend his AO title IMO.

That said, I don't think Novak will be able to hold onto it. As GSF said, Nadal is still the better play on clay courts and grass and I see him taking back the #2 ranking during the grass/clay season. Despite Nadal's current struggles, he's still the heavy favourite to win the French next year so one has to think he'll improve on his 4th round points. And he didn't even play Wimbledon so there's a lot of points up for grabs there as well. As of now he's probably the second best grass court player in the world behind Federer since Del Potro and Novak struggle on grass and Murray seems to always crumble under the pressure.
 
I wholeheartedly agree with Ripster. There are a lot of points to defend, and Djokovic isn't far behind. I'm also pretty sure he'll lose it over clay.
 
Ripster said:
Nadal has a lot of points to defend over the winter/spring hardcourt season compared to Djokovic. I see Novak stealing the #2 ranking as I think he'll improve on his quarterfinal showing at the AO while it will be very difficult for Nadal to defend his AO title IMO.

That said, I don't think Novak will be able to hold onto it. As GSF said, Nadal is still the better play on clay courts and grass and I see him taking back the #2 ranking during the grass/clay season. Despite Nadal's current struggles, he's still the heavy favourite to win the French next year so one has to think he'll improve on his 4th round points. And he didn't even play Wimbledon so there's a lot of points up for grabs there as well. As of now he's probably the second best grass court player in the world behind Federer since Del Potro and Novak struggle on grass and Murray seems to always crumble under the pressure.
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Good point. Also keep in mind that Novak can match up pretty well on clay again Nadal (see this years Madrid masters)
 
He'll take it soon. Then will lose it again during clay season. Than he'll probably lose the sight of Rafa in the distance again, and it'll more depend whether Fed still wants to go for it all the time.
 
[d]ragon;4140023 said:
Good point. Also keep in mind that Novak can match up pretty well on clay again Nadal (see this years Madrid masters)
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That's Nadal playing on the worst possible clay for him and playing some of his worst clay court tennis of the last few years. Djokovic still couldn't take him :lol:
 
If Nadal continues to play at the level he has been, and Djokovic continues how he's played since the summer, then yes.
 
Who knows. Djokovic seems to love having that #3 next to his name. In Sydney, He was one match away from becoming the new #2 and lost to f**king Nieminen.
 
I think Djoko and Murray have the same thing in common at times. After a couple of sets they look as though they are wilting. Fed and Nadal on the whole seem to enjoy going the extra sets and we have seen Nadal not even come alive until set three. This is what has made them the greats. If Del Potro can be the same then i scent trouble
 
Tony48 said:
Who knows. Djokovic seems to love having that #3 next to his name. In Sydney, He was one match away from becoming the new #2 and lost to f**king Nieminen.
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Lol,that's true,I think he lost 3-4 times when #2 ranking was on the line,let's hope that trend doesn't continue in the future.
 
GustafsonFanatic said:
What do you think about the post #17 in this thread?
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I read it,I agree in a sense that Nadal was definitely playing below his(very high)clay standards at Madrid,even Nando was up 4-0 and Fed ultimately beat him in the final in straights.However I also in general do think that overall Novak is a pretty tough match-up for Nadal gamewise(despite their H2H)but Nadal is mentally tougher and fitter which is why he wins their encounters that go the distance(all of Novak wins were straight sets If I'm not mistaken).
 
GustafsonFanatic said:
And now the inevitable question...

How did Rafa play against Soderling?
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I think he played OK for a part of the match,not his best tennis but still good enought to win against most players but my theory is that the injury that forced him to miss Wimbledon after occured during that match(at one point of the match he turned to his camp and said something like "I can't move").

IMO Nadal overplayed during clay season and when he ran into a big hitter like Soderling who had a good day he paid the price because he was forced to run all over court which flared up his tendonitis again.

He looked great in he previous round against Hewitt but Nadal was the one dictating in that match,he was forced to cover way,way more ground against Soderling who was just crushing the ball that day.
 
Did he play "on the worst possible clay for him and playing some of his worst clay court tennis of the last few years" against Soderling?

Rate his 3 performances: against Djokovic in SF, against Fed in F, and against Soderling at FO.

As for his tendonitis flaring up, the match against Djokovic was longer than Soderling match.
 
GustafsonFanatic said:
Did he play "on the worst possible clay for him and playing some of his worst clay court tennis of the last few years" against Soderling?

Rate his 3 performances: against Djokovic in SF, against Fed in F, and against Soderling at FO.

As for his tendonitis flaring up, the match against Djokovic was longer than Soderling match.
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1st place-semi against Novak
2nd place-final against Fed
3d place-Soderling match

Despite the lentgh of the match Novak didn't make Nadal scramble as much as Soderling did,it's just a guess anyway,only Nadal knows for sure.
 
zagor said:
1st place-semi against Novak
2nd place-final against Fed
3d place-Soderling match

Despite the lentgh of the match Novak didn't make Nadal scramble as much as Soderling did,it's just a guess anyway,only Nadal knows for sure.
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You mean, against Novak he was the best and against Sod the worst?
 
GustafsonFanatic said:
You mean, against Novak he was the best and against Sod the worst?
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Yes,so no I don't agree with IvanAndreevich that Nadal was playing his very worst claycourt tennis in years against Novak in Madrid.I also disagree with him if he thinks Novak is not a tough match-up for Nadal(IMO he is).
 
zagor said:
I think he played OK for a part of the match,not his best tennis but still good enought to win against most players but my theory is that the injury that forced him to miss Wimbledon after occured during that match(at one point of the match he turned to his camp and said something like "I can't move").

IMO Nadal overplayed during clay season and when he ran into a big hitter like Soderling who had a good day he paid the price because he was forced to run all over court which flared up his tendonitis again.

He looked great in he previous round against Hewitt but Nadal was the one dictating in that match,he was forced to cover way,way more ground against Soderling who was just crushing the ball that day.
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According to haters,he was probably just being coached:):)

But I agree with the rest of your post. Whether you agree or not that Nadal wasn't at his best in RG,you can't deny that the critical point for his knees was reached somewhere in the Madrid-Paris period. If Nadal is to be believed and he played with pain since MC(which started on April 11),then he played with pain for almost a month(in which he played 3 consecutive tournaments,rested a bit and the played Madrid) and a half(until 31 May when he was ousted in 4th round) until tendinitis did him in. With Nadal's style I'm suprised he didn't fall earlier on. There is only so much your body can take.
 
OK, just clearing that up.

I too think Novak is a tough matchup for Rafa. He plays better against Rafa than against any other Top 8 player (except DelPo, but he has not yet played mature DelPo on hardcourts).
 
namelessone said:
According to haters,he was probably just being coached:):)

But I agree with the rest of your post. Whether you agree or not that Nadal wasn't at his best in RG,you can't deny that the critical point for his knees was reached somewhere in the Madrid-Paris period. If Nadal is to be believed and he played with pain since MC(which started on April 11),then he played with pain for almost a month(in which he played 3 consecutive tournaments,rested a bit and the played Madrid) and a half(until 31 May when he was ousted in 4th round) until tendinitis did him in. With Nadal's style I'm suprised he didn't fall earlier on. There is only so much your body can take.
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Well he needs to schedule better given his style of play but that's a topic that has been done to death,it's up to him and his camp to make better decisions in the future,I think they learned their lesson this year.

Btw. What exactly did he yell to his camp if you remember,I think it was "I can't move" but I'm not sure.
 
zagor said:
Yes,so no I don't agree with IvanAndreevich that Nadal was playing his very worst claycourt tennis in years against Novak in Madrid.I also disagree with him if he thinks Novak is not a tough match-up for Nadal(IMO he is).
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What you say makes sense. I just wanted to put the record straight, you know.

If credit is gonna be taken from Djokovic, then (at least) equal amount of credit has to be taken from Soderling and Federer.

Anything to disagree?
 
GustafsonFanatic said:
What you say makes sense. I just wanted to put the record straight, you know.

If credit is gonna be taken from Djokovic, then (at least) equal amount of credit has to be taken from Soderling and Federer.

Anything to disagree?
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Nope,agree with everything.Novak-Nadal Madrid SF will probably be regarded as one of the best matches of 2009.
 
zagor said:
Well he needs to schedule better given his style of play but that's a topic that has been done to death,it's up to him and his camp to make better decisions in the future,I think they learned their lesson this year.

Btw. What exactly did he yell to his camp if you remember,I think it was "I can't move" but I'm not sure.
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Well,they didn't have microphones so I didn't really hear what he said but he was basically gesturing that he had some trouble either moving or bending. This is true even today,especially on the BH side. Look,how little Nadal bends on the BH side and hits the BH from his feet,with little or no bending,even if he is out of position. And he doesn't lean into his Bh shot anymore as before,because it puts more pressure on his knees.
 
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