Greater Career (so far): Zverev or Nalbandian?

Better career (so far)

  • Alexander Zverev

    Votes: 13 32.5%

  • David Nalbandian

    Votes: 27 67.5%
  • Total voters
    40
Cabeza del Demonio

Cabeza del Demonio

Professional
Grand Slam:
Zverev: 1 final, 1 SF
Nalbandian: 1 final, 4 SF

Career Titles:
Zverev: 11
Nalbandian: 11

Career Record:
Zverev: 238-122 (66%)
Nalbandian: 383-192 (67%)

World Championship:
Zverev: 1 title, 3 (now 4) appearances
Nalbandian: 1 title, 3 appearances

Masters 1000:
Zverev: 3
Nalbandian: 2

Right now it seems almost dead even, but the better Grand Slam results for David outweigh Sascha's extra Masters title. Of course, Zverev is just getting started.

Whose career would you take? Vote and discuss!
 
Grand Slam performances trump everything else

so Hipbaldian is ahead of Doublefaulterev (though sasha has time to catch up)
 
Zverev needs to strike while the iron is hot. There's no guarantee he'll slide into grand slam titles when the Big 3 retire. I still think he has more in the tank for his career, though. Pretty good comparison OP.
 
Lol the disrespect zverev gets is too much. He's only 22 and he's only getting started. The fact that it's a debate shows nalbandian isn't going to be on zverevs level when zverev finishes his career.

Right now the edge is with nalby, but that's because zverevs career is just getting started.

The main disrespect comes from fed fans because they're disappointed next gen can't take slams away from Novak and rafa. Doesnt mean next gen aren't good in their own right. Just because they can't beat the 3 GOATs shouldn't be an issue. Its not like nalby took many slams away from the big 3.
 
K-H said:
Lol the disrespect zverev gets is too much. He's only 22 and he's only getting started. The fact that it's a debate shows nalbandian isn't going to be on zverevs level when zverev finishes his career.

Right now the edge is with nalby, but that's because zverevs career is just getting started.

The main disrespect comes from fed fans because they're disappointed next gen can't take slams away from Novak and rafa. Doesnt mean next gen aren't good in their own right. Just because they can't beat the 3 GOATs shouldn't be an issue. Its not like nalby took many slams away from the big 3.
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They can't even beat Thiem LOL.

Time to stop blaming the 3 GOATS for their failures.
 
mike danny said:
They can't even beat Thiem LOL.

Time to stop blaming the 3 GOATS for their failures.
Click to expand...

It's not often you have 3 GOATS in the same era. That too all playing well in their 30s. What do you expect. Its the hardest time for young players to make a name when 3 of the greatest players that ever lived are still playing top tennis.

And their careers just started man. Give them time. The players I'm talking about is zverev, tsitsipas and medvedev. All look promising. Med and zeverev both made a GS final. Stefanos (who beat Thiem) and zverev both won WTF. And Zverev won whilst novak was playing top tennis. Completely outplaying him.

Their time will come. They still young yet. But dont be calling them mugs (not targeted at you, just generally). I hate it when I see that. Hard working professionals. They'll end up with a better career than all those players you rate between 04-09 like nalbandian, davydenko, gonzalez, Blake etc.
 
K-H said:
It's not often you have 3 GOATS in the same era. That too all playing well in their 30s. What do you expect. Its the hardest time for young players to make a name when 3 of the greatest players that ever lived are still playing top tennis.

And their careers just started man. Give them time. The players I'm talking about is zverev, tsitsipas and medvedev. All look promising. Med and zeverev both made a GS final. Stefanos (who beat Thiem) and zverev both won WTF. And Zverev won whilst novak was playing top tennis. Completely outplaying him.

Their time will come. They still young yet. But dont be calling them mugs (not targeted at you, just generally). I hate it when I see that. Hard working professionals. They'll end up with a better career than all those players you rate between 04-09 like nalbandian, davydenko, gonzalez, Blake etc.
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The Big 3 are not to blame for their failures. Them being too good has nothing to do with the younger ones losing to other players that are not Big 3 more often than not.
 
mike danny said:
The Big 3 are not to blame for their failures. Them being too good has nothing to do with the younger ones losing to other players that are not Big 3 more often than not.
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How good do you want them to be? The players you rate like i mentioned above weren't capable of much more. I know you rate nalby, davydenko, blake etc etc. I rate them as well. Top players. But none of them won any GS. Their achievements are not extraordinary compared to what these youngsters are doing at same age.

Don't know why your mugging off these youngsters who will end up with better careers than the names mentioned above but you still rate them, but not these players.

And I've got nothing personal against you. One of my fav fed fans but I dont agree with you on this...
 
K-H said:
How good do you want them to be? The players you rate like i mentioned above weren't capable of much more. I know you rate nalby, davydenko, blake etc etc. I rate them as well. Top players. But none of them won any GS. Their achievements are not extraordinary compared to what these youngsters are doing at same age.

Don't know why your mugging off these youngsters who will end up with better careers than the names mentioned above but you still rate them, but not these players.

And I've got nothing personal against you. One of my fav fed fans but I dont agree with you on this...
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Davydenko and Nalbandian are second tier anyway. I don't rate them super highly, but I am impressed with the wins they have had. More than Zverev's wins.

Blake is 3rd or 4th tier at best. Don't rate him super highly either but I was impressed with 2005 and 2006 USO QFs.

The Next Gen should be much better than these guys anyway and shouldn't even be compared to them. By default they will be better than those second and 3rd/4th tier guys.
 
Haha I just made a thread like this a few days ago. I’d give the edge to Nalbandian since he has performed slightly better at slams, although Zverev came inches from a slam title while Nalby got smoked by Rusty Hewitt in straights.

This should not be a debate in a couple years as Zverev is still early on in his career at just 23 years old.
 
Nalby won his masters and WTF beating peak versions of Nadal and Federer. Zverev’s GS final was a fluke anyways given the unique circumstances.
 
Goosehead said:
dave was zeds age by wimb2005 (born 1/1/82)..zeds career so far is way better.
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Good point to be made by age. At the same point in their respective careers:

Grand Slams:
Nalbandian (1 F, 2 SF, 4 QF)
Zverev (1 F, 1 SF, 2 QF)

ATP Finals:
Nalbandian (1 RR Wins)
Zverev (5 RR Wins, 1 SF, 1 W)

Masters:
Nalbandian (3 F, 2 SF)
Zverev (3 W, 3 F, 2 SF)

Smaller Title Count:
Nalbandian (3 ATP 250s)
Zverev (2 ATP 500s, 6 ATP 250s)

Nalbandian definitely has a solid edge in slams. Everywhere else, he's not just beaten but utterly dominated. To such a degree one might even say it offsets the slam edge.
 
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BeatlesFan said:
And is literally 1/10th the player. Most people expressing an opinion here couldn't even pick Nalby out of a police line up and never saw him play.
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Pretty strokes =/= better player. The hard fact is that Zverev has achieved virtually Nalbandian's entire career at 22 with no sign of stopping.
 
David played in harder era and struggled with his body, and not best commitment.
But Zverev will have a lot of achievement at the end.
 
mike danny said:
The Big 3 are not to blame for their failures. Them being too good has nothing to do with the younger ones losing to other players that are not Big 3 more often than not.
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I feel like this isn't fully the case anymore. Thiem probably would've won a few slams by now if not for Djokodal, Medvedev lost a classic to Rafa last year at the USO finals and in his last two AOs he fell to Nole and Stan, Stefanos lost in AO to Rafa, and like Med, also fell to Djoker ans Stan but instead it came at the French Open. Zverev's big hurdle has ironically been Thiem who's beaten him in the quarters or later at 3 out of the 4 majors now.
 
clout said:
I feel like this isn't fully the case anymore. Thiem probably would've won a few slams by now if not for Djokodal, Medvedev lost a classic to Rafa last year at the USO finals and in his last two AOs he fell to Nole and Stan, Stefanos lost in AO to Rafa, and like Med, also fell to Djoker ans Stan but instead it came at the French Open. Zverev's big hurdle has ironically been Thiem who's beaten him in the quarters or later at 3 out of the 4 majors now.
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Losing to Thiem and post 2017 Stan is not the same as losing to the Big 3.

So Tsits and Med have lost a couple of slam matches to the Big 3. Does that suddenly erase all those other losses to other players?
 
James P said:
Good point to be made by age. At the same point in their respective careers:

Grand Slams:
Nalbandian (1 F, 2 SF, 4 QF)
Zverev (1 F, 1 SF, 2 QF)

ATP Finals:
Nalbandian (1 RR Wins)
Zverev (5 RR Wins, 1 SF, 1 W)

Masters:
Nalbandian (3 F, 2 SF)
Zverev (3 W, 3 F, 2 SF)

Smaller Title Count:
Nalbandian (3 ATP 250s)
Zverev (2 ATP 500s, 6 ATP 250s)

Nalbandian definitely has a solid edge in slams. Everywhere else, he's not just beaten but utterly dominated. To such a degree one might even say it offsets the slam edge.
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LOL Nalbandian would destroy Zverev, power hitters could sweep him off the court, but a 1 dimensional player who is a mental basket case with no 2nd serve, against Fat Dave? LOL.
 
sredna42 said:
LOL Nalbandian would destroy Zverev, power hitters could sweep him off the court, but a 1 dimensional player who is a mental basket case with no 2nd serve, against Fat Dave? LOL.
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You might be right. I have a lot of respect for Nalbandian. That said, the question wasn't who would win in a head to head match, which could be debated all day with limited satisfaction and minimal reference points. However, you can measure the strength of a career much more readily, which is actually what the OP was asking.
 
K-H said:
It's not often you have 3 GOATS in the same era. That too all playing well in their 30s. What do you expect. Its the hardest time for young players to make a name when 3 of the greatest players that ever lived are still playing top tennis.

And their careers just started man. Give them time. The players I'm talking about is zverev, tsitsipas and medvedev. All look promising. Med and zeverev both made a GS final. Stefanos (who beat Thiem) and zverev both won WTF. And Zverev won whilst novak was playing top tennis. Completely outplaying him.

Their time will come. They still young yet. But dont be calling them mugs (not targeted at you, just generally). I hate it when I see that. Hard working professionals. They'll end up with a better career than all those players you rate between 04-09 like nalbandian, davydenko, gonzalez, Blake etc.
Click to expand...
I mean this big 3 wanking needs to stop.

Even at their best they weren't invincible and winning every slam on the planet.

Safin took a slam from them, so did Delpo, so did Cilic, Murray took 2 and ecen Stan took 3. And all this against prime Big 3.

So yeah, pretty lame for these 20s guys to allow Djokodal to win nearly the last 10 slams.
 
Cabeza del Demonio said:
Grand Slam:
Zverev: 1 final, 1 SF
Nalbandian: 1 final, 4 SF

Career Titles:
Zverev: 11
Nalbandian: 11

Career Record:
Zverev: 238-122 (66%)
Nalbandian: 383-192 (67%)

World Championship:
Zverev: 1 title, 3 (now 4) appearances
Nalbandian: 1 title, 3 appearances

Masters 1000:
Zverev: 3
Nalbandian: 2

Right now it seems almost dead even, but the better Grand Slam results for David outweigh Sascha's extra Masters title. Of course, Zverev is just getting started.

Whose career would you take? Vote and discuss!
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We all thought Nalby was just getting started too ;_;
 
What's the point of this. In an another three years Zverev will have surpassed Nalbandian's career.
 
mike danny said:
Losing to Thiem and post 2017 Stan is not the same as losing to the Big 3.

So Tsits and Med have lost a couple of slam matches to the Big 3. Does that suddenly erase all those other losses to other players?
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Tbh Thiem is probably better than Federer at this point (it’s been almost 3 years since Fed last won a major which is pretty nuts). Thiem also currently has the age advantage over the nextgen as his body and game is more developed so it's not a surprise that the nextgen struggle to beat him. Obviously this isn’t prime Stan but he’s still a dangerous opponent.

A couple years ago, your point of them not even reaching the big 3 would be 100% valid but I don’t think that’s really the case anymore. It’s just crystal clear that when the big 3 (especially Nadal and Djokovic) are in action, they’re still a tier above everyone else. The moment Rafa came back on tour and Novak stopped getting defaulted this past RG, no one in the field stood a chance.
 
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Zverev could learn basically the entire game of tennis from Nalbandian. Footwork, feel, taking the ball early, stroke mechanics. All he can do better is pop the first serve because he's tall.

All Nalbandian could learn from Zverev is how to lay off the donuts once in a while and maintain the build of a teenage boy.
 
metsman said:
Zverev could learn basically the entire game of tennis from Nalbandian. Footwork, feel, taking the ball early, stroke mechanics. All he can do better is pop the first serve because he's tall.

All Nalbandian could learn from Zverev is how to lay off the donuts once in a while and maintain the build of a teenage boy.
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all Nalbandian could learn from Zverev is how to be born in the actual weak era and not the fake one
 
clout said:
Tbh Thiem is probably better than Federer at this point (it’s been almost 3 years since Fed last won a major which is pretty nuts). Thiem also currently has the age advantage over the nextgen as his body and game is more developed so it's not a surprise that the nextgen struggle to beat him. Obviously this isn’t prime Stan but he’s still a dangerous opponent.

A couple years ago, your point of them not even reaching the big 3 would be 100% valid but I don’t think that’s really the case anymore. It’s just crystal clear that when the big 3 (especially Nadal and Djokovic) are in action, they’re still a tier above everyone else. The moment Rafa came back on tour and Novak stopped getting defaulted this past RG, no one in the field stood a chance.
clout said:
A couple years ago, your point of them not even reaching the big 3 would be 100% valid but I don’t think that’s really the case anymore.
Click to expand...
Really? The Next Gen have still lost more to the field than to the Big 3 even 2 years later.

FYI, Thiem himself struggled mightily to beat Zverev.
Click to expand...
 
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