As someone who thinks Fed’s peak was greater than Novak’s, I hang my hat on 2011-2012 because it’s a crucial 2 years for evaluation. Fed was just past his prime at this point (certainly past his peak), but Novak was in his peak - the low to mid twenties being the physiological peak for tennis players.
Yet Fed - near and past 30 - played him very VERY close in these years. Winning two majors against Novak - on clay and grass in just four sets (WB wasn’t very close) - and holding match points at another, the USO.
If this is how competitive Fed was with Novak past his prime while six years younger Novak was in his peak….
Is peak Fed going to do worse?
Anyway - I won’t go around in circles as surely you will have an argument - along with other posters.
But this has been done ad-naseaum.
So I’ll let it go here.
To each his own and no offense meant. Novak is an incredible champion who deserves all he’s won.
If you are going to delve deep into the - beyond the numbers point of view for context, then lets go all the way.
Federer at RG 2011 played his most dominant run to the final than he did even in the year that he won the title. In 2009, his prime year, he was dropping sets in the third round, was a inch away from potentially going out in the fourth round, had to fight back to win the semi. His only real true solid performance was in the final that year. Are seriously going to say that he played better in 2009 in his prime than he did in 2011 over all?
In 2011 heading into that semi, he lost zero sets, and up until he missed that dropshot on set point in the final, he was the most dominant player at that RG up to that point, considering Nadal himself had lost two sets to Isner. Also take into the account that year they used lighter balls which massively helped aggressively shot making tennis, the players said the balls were flying that year and a guy like Federer in faster conditions is a very dangerous combo anywhere. Had normal heavier balls been used, who knows how Federer would have played that tournament.
At Wimbledon 2012 they were neck and neck until the rain came and the roof came on. Federer legit won of course, but lets not forget that the match went indoors, and Federer at the time arguably was the superior indoor player anyway, having won back to back WTF titles, so the conditions began to suit his game more and more.
Now, you can still stick with the whole peak Federer is better, sure, but others will disagree.
