Greatest version of Nadal?

Best Version of Nadal?

  • 2008

    Votes: 35 53.8%
  • 2010

    Votes: 23 35.4%
  • 2013

    Votes: 7 10.8%

  • Total voters
    65

BackhandDTL

Hall of Fame
[
He lost only one set on red clay the entire clay season though and destroyed everyone in his path, except Djokovic in the RG final and Ferrer at Barcelona. I kind of lean towards 2012 overall on clay and probably 2008 at RG.
that’s fair. I meant for RG purely id take 2010 over 2012, but clay season overall I think you are right about 2012 though. The matches I remember best in RG 2010 is Almagro and Soderling where he was ridiculous, so maybe that’s why.

I do think Nadal was hitting a bigger ball at 2010 RG.
 

MichaelNadal

Bionic Poster
[

that’s fair. I meant for RG purely id take 2010 over 2012, but clay season overall I think you are right about 2012 though. The matches I remember best in RG 2010 is Almagro and Soderling where he was ridiculous, so maybe that’s why.

I do think Nadal was hitting a bigger ball at 2010 RG.

The Ferrer RG match in 2012 is bananas.
 

Beckerserve

Legend
Which Nadal do you pick and why?

Obviously 2010 was his best year interms of slam results, as he won on all three surfaces.
But the level of competition at those slams was not as high as in 2008 (where he faced Fed at W) or 2013 (where he had to deal with Djokovic 2.0 at USO. 2010 Djokovic wasn’t quite the same animal as 2011-2015...

interesting to study the charts here:
2019 Nadal better than 2013. The fact Nadal beat djokovic in 2 huge matches that year was telling.
2008 v 2010 is so hard to differentiate. I voted 2010 purely on basis Majors are the biggest events but it is hard to choose.
 

PilotPete

Hall of Fame
In the end it won't matter, only the overall results will be the 'objective' metric of how good someone was. And even that will be biased by era changes.
 

octobrina10

Talk Tennis Guru
Amazing memory :love:

Rafa completed 'Summer Slam':

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(y)
 

SABRvolley

Rookie
Mid 2008 - mid 2009 was his highest level of play.

2010 was his best in terms of results.

2013 was his most consistent and his best on HC.
 

Mustard

Bionic Poster
2008. Nadal won 8 tournaments in 4 months from April to August, i.e. Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Hamburg, French Open, Queen's Club, Wimbledon, Canadian Open in Toronto, Beijing Olympics, and became world number 1, ending Federer's 4 and a half year reign in that position.
 

nolefam_2024

Talk Tennis Guru
Going with 2010 although he had weaker competition in all 3. I may have picked another year before but right now going with 2010.

He had ungodly amount of service stats in 2010. 90+% HOLDS which is not just the USOpen tournament but for entire year.

This is next level for a guy like Nadal. He also won 70% of service pts. Only other year he did the same was in 2017.
 

SABRvolley

Rookie
Which Nadal do you pick and why?

Obviously 2010 was his best year interms of slam results, as he won on all three surfaces.
But the level of competition at those slams was not as high as in 2008 (where he faced Fed at W) or 2013 (where he had to deal with Djokovic 2.0 at USO. 2010 Djokovic wasn’t quite the same animal as 2011-2015...

interesting to study the charts here:
I actually think Djokovic played better in the 2010 USO final than in the 2013 final, even though he was overall obviously a better player in 2013
 

SonnyT

Legend
2011, Nadal didn't lose to anybody else, except to Djokovic!

In 2008, he lost to Jaarki (whoever he was) at AO, and Murray at US. In 2010, he lost to Murray at AO. In 2013, he didn't play at AO, and lost to Darcis at WB.
 
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messiahrobins

Hall of Fame
2011, Nadal didn't lose to anybody else, except to Djokovic!

In 2008, he lost to Jaarki (whoever he was) at AO, and Murray at US. In 2010, he lost to Murray at AO. In 2013, he didn't play at AO, and lost to Darcis at WB.
LOL. Nadal 2010 was far better than 2011, the injury at AO 2011 marked the relative decline of Nadal footspeed wise. Younger fans under 30 wont remember that far back that clearly but Nadal 2008 was the absolute pinnacle of tennis up to the emergence of Alcaraz who probably has moved the chains a bit now. Nadal 2010 was arguably as good as Rafa did the Surface Slam but in 2008 he won in even a shorter space of time FO-W-OG on three surfaces and then even managed to make the USO SF utterly exhausted. Alcaraz by contrast went out 2nd round at USO this year, which just shows how spectacular 2008 was.
Of course it also highlights the epicness of Graf 1988.
 

messiahrobins

Hall of Fame
In epic kits :D
Nadal 2008 revolutionalised the sport. 2008-2010 was the highest level of tennis ever seen looking back and its a shame he got injured in 2009 at the FO as he probably would have done the Calendar Slam in 2009. Now we can reflect on his career i think those 3 slams in 2009 (FO-W-USO) and the AO 2014 were 4 that got away due to health more than any others as while he missed lots of slams post 2014 he was a shadow of the player he was 2008-2010 by then so i dont think it could be guaranteed he would have been winning slams he missed then, but that 2008-2010 period was spectacular level.
I think we are seeing Alcaraz about to match that level or even go up a notch. Happy days for us, potentially 40 plus years of pure bliss.
 

nolefam_2024

Talk Tennis Guru
2011, Nadal didn't lose to anybody else, except to Djokovic!

In 2008, he lost to Jaarki (whoever he was) at AO, and Murray at US. In 2010, he lost to Murray at AO. In 2013, he didn't play at AO, and lost to Darcis at WB.
2010 Nadal is the best.
 
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