How could Djokovic beat the big servers of the 90s?

[Kralingen]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

 

[NatF]

Nuff said.

 

[Backspin1183]

Weak era champ. A mug among ATGs LMFAO!

 

[darthrafa]

u r wrong
he is the GOAT of return

 

[Mike Sams]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

2021 must've been hell for you when Djokovic won 3 straight majors. Waiting and waiting for him to falter so you can finally come on here and talk rubbish

 

[MotoboXer]

MTOs and delay tactics?

 

[ultimathule]

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Really? And I remember hearing somewhere that Djokovic was the reason Roddick retired, that Roddick felt he could no longer compete at the highest level, which Djokovic was the embodiment of.

 

[BeatlesFan]

I love Andre, but think Djokovic has the greatest ROS ever. Agassi did have to return serves on super fast carpet and slick, low bouncing grass however, so that's a big caveat. We'll never know how Novak would do on returning a Sampras serve on carpet or 1990's grass. But with today's playing conditions, Djokovic reigns supreme with his ROS.

 

[MotoboXer]

Cakewalk draws.

 

[TheNachoMan]

My idol would likely be 2-5000 against PETE.

 

[PilotPete]

What about Isner???? No cherry picking please, that belongs to LewII.

 

[The Blond Blur]

 

[Graf1stClass]

2021 must've been hell for you when Djokovic won 3 straight majors. Waiting and waiting for him to falter so you can finally come on here and talk rubbish

3/4 is only 75%

 

[victorcruz]

Reported for turning on the Djokovic brotherhood

 

[Kralingen]

2021 must've been hell for you when Djokovic won 3 straight majors. Waiting and waiting for him to falter so you can finally come on here and talk rubbish

Why would I be upset? Not too hard to beat these SOYBOY loser NextGen who can't even grow hair on their chest. Medvedev stopped trying in AO '21, Tsitsipas forgot he had to win 3 sets at the French, and Berrettini's BH is so bad even his serve couldn't save him.

Djokovic would be lost playing against the real TESTOSTERONE tennis of the 90s. Maybe he gets through Todd Martin, but with Sampras in the next round? Sorry bud.

 

[Antonio Puente]

Tsitsipas forgot he had to win 3 sets at the French,

That part of the impersonation is true.

 

[aldeayeah]

You always showed promise, but now, now you are a true TTWer.

god help us all

 

[Poisoned Slice]

With one hand tied behind his back.

 

[Mike Sams]

Why would I be upset? Not too hard to beat these SOYBOY loser NextGen who can't even grow hair on their chest. Medvedev stopped trying in AO '21, Tsitsipas forgot he had to win 3 sets at the French, and Berrettini's BH is so bad even his serve couldn't save him.

Djokovic would be lost playing against the real TESTOSTERONE tennis of the 90s. Maybe he gets through Todd Martin, but with Sampras in the next round? Sorry bud.

Agreed. But it's not the 90s anymore though. It's 2022. No point talking about the greats of generations back. The here and the now is all that matters whether we like it or not. How many years has it been since people have been having hopes of a new gen player stepping up? Over a decade now? How many good players did people pin their hopes on to take on the big 3? Dimitrov, Raonic, Nishikori, Del Potro, Cilic, Gulbis, etc, etc. It's still going....

 

[StringStrungStrang]

With one hand tied behind his back.

Likely true! He has become great at nearly everything, but victim of his own motivation. No players, especially from that era are as well rounded.

 

[Mike Sams]

3/4 is only 75%

Sure but he also denied the other guys 20 majors. Imagine if there's no Djoker. How many more Slams would Nadal and Federer have today? Probably like 27-28 for each

 

[StringStrungStrang]

Sure but he also denied the other guys 20 majors. Imagine if there's no Djoker. How many more Slams would Nadal and Federer have today? Probably like 27-28 for each

Or more!!

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Djokovic is a world class returner, he'd be fine.

Also, I love how these sort of arguments are always framed as 'how would Nadal and Djokovic go in the 90's' as if serve botting and sprinting to the net is some sort of supreme tennis, it was boring as batshit which is why they slowed the courts down so tennis could be about actually crafting a point. Nadal and Djokovic are champions and would go well in any era. If Agassi can win Wimbledon in the 90's, so could they. Funny how it is never framed as, how would 90's stars go in the 2010's. Federer's record might give you a bit of a hint.

 

[NonP]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

u r wrong
he is the GOAT of return

Novak's vulnerability vs. big servers is why I've long maintained that, if we must choose, Murray is the best returner of their generation. Like Dre before him Muzz was/is just kryptonite for servebots, and it'd take a stud like Pistol and Boris or a wizard like Edberg and Rafter to tear down that wall that is the Murray RoS.

That said Muzz is a little too defensive, and while Novak may strike a good balance between Dre's hyper-aggression and Ahn-dee's Pong-ism Jimbo's return is even more versatile. Nole would still clean up at Wimbledon barring peak/prime Pistol/Fred/Mac, but a GOATing Ivanisevic/Krajicek/Stich would indeed be too much for him.

And of course he'd still dominate his pet Slam Down Under, and steal 1-2 FOs and a couple more USOs regardless of competition. In short there's no era where Djoker wouldn't be a GOAT candidate.

 

[DSH]

Sure but he also denied the other guys 20 majors. Imagine if there's no Djoker. How many more Slams would Nadal and Federer have today? Probably like 27-28 for each

At least; thank the son of God for existing!

 

[GabeT]

Weak era trolling

 

[NeutralFan]

40-15 still hurts , no OP?

 

[darthrafa]

Why would I be upset? Not too hard to beat these SOYBOY loser NextGen who can't even grow hair on their chest. Medvedev stopped trying in AO '21, Tsitsipas forgot he had to win 3 sets at the French, and Berrettini's BH is so bad even his serve couldn't save him.

Djokovic would be lost playing against the real TESTOSTERONE tennis of the 90s. Maybe he gets through Todd Martin, but with Sampras in the next round? Sorry bud.

it is silly to say med stopped trying in ao21.
would u say djoker doing the same thing at his loss to med in THREE straight sets?

 

[AlexanderTheGreat08]

Djokovic is a world class returner, he'd be fine.

Also, I love how these sort of arguments are always framed as 'how would Nadal and Djokovic go in the 90's' as if serve botting and sprinting to the net is some sort of supreme tennis, it was boring as batshit which is why they slowed the courts down so tennis could be about actually crafting a point. Nadal and Djokovic are champions and would go well in any era. If Agassi can win Wimbledon in the 90's, so could they. Funny how it is never framed as, how would 90's stars go in the 2010's. Federer's record might give you a bit of a hint.

Have you seen Wimbledon matches from the 90's? Honestly , even as a Nadal fan , i'm not too optimistic at all about his chances on 90's grass , considering that he has shown vulnerability in the slow grass. Djokovic's chances are higher , but i still don't see him winning if Sampras is there defending it , though i'm assuming he can reach him. Of course we'll never know if they could have reinvented their games to the point of being genuine contenders , You could say Agassi was fortunate Sampras didn't started dominating earlier(though he did gave Pete a run for his money in 1993 , at least)

 

[Daniel Andrade]

I don't like these kinds of posts.
So what? Is he time travelling?

If he had played in the 90's Djokovic would have been a completely different player, so would Nadal and so would Federer. If, if, if...

 

[TennisLurker]

Vesely won because of how well he played in the rallies, Djokovic won few points with his second serve. Vesely has good super hard groundstrokes, he isn't a servebot

 

[abmk]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

You have become a certified TTW Gold member today!

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Have you seen Wimbledon matches from the 90's? Honestly , even as a Nadal fan , i'm not too optimistic at all about his chances on 90's grass , considering that he has shown vulnerability in the slow grass. Djokovic's chances are higher , but i still don't see him winning if Sampras is there defending it , though i'm assuming he can reach him. Of course we'll never know if they could have reinvented their games to the point of being genuine contenders , You could say Agassi was fortunate Sampras didn't started dominating earlier(though he did gave Pete a run for his money in 1993 , at least)

Yeah I started following tennis in 88 so I was there for the entire Sampras era. Young Nadal at his best on grass was a beast. Agassi won Wimbledon in 1992, I still think that if he's winning a Wimbledon in that era, Nadal would definitely grab one. More than one? Maybe not, against Sampras? Maybe not, but definitely would have won it at least once.

 

[abmk]

Novak's vulnerability vs. big servers is why I've long maintained that, if we must choose, Murray is the best returner of their generation. Like Dre before him Muzz was/is just kryptonite for servebots, and it'd take a stud like Pistol and Boris or a wizard like Edberg and Rafter to tear down that wall that is the Murray RoS.

Federer laughs in Wim 15 and Cincy 15.

 

[NeutralFan]

How many Tournaments did Fed win with playing with Gut strings ?

 

[Midaso240]

Partially true, I can't see Djokovic having much of a show on '90s grass. Sampras would be too much for him I think. Agassi did manage to get a title against Ivanisevic so maybe Novak could snatch a title as well...

 

[Kralingen]

How many Tournaments did Fed win with playing with Gut strings ?

Iirc he switched some time around 2003, but was using full gut at Wimby ‘01/Hamburg ‘02.

Williams sisters used it for quite a while.

A really interesting one is that Djokovic played all of 2007 with a full bed of multi gut…

 

[NeutralFan]

Iirc he switched some time around 2003, but was using full gut at Wimby ‘01/Hamburg ‘02.

Williams sisters used it for quite a while.

A really interesting one is that Djokovic played all of 2007 with a full bed of multi gut…

Translated as he was losing early in slams while using Guts

 

[Checkmate]

Tennis didn't evolve in 1990s.

Tennis evolved with the arrival of Jiri Vesely in Dubai in 2022.

He combined Jason's light tennis with Karatsev's bite tennis and seasoned it with Djokovic's precision.

Simple.

 

[Sudacafan]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

This is a total shame. I can’t recover of a general sensation of deep astonishment after reading your post.

 

[Kralingen]

Tennis didn't evolve in 1990s.

Tennis evolved with the arrival of Jiri Vesely in Dubai in 2022.

He combined Jason's light tennis with Karatsev's bite tennis and seasoned it with Djokovic's precision.

Simple.

Cilic/RBA/Djokovic all in the 40s-50s% of 2nd serve points won. No coincidence. Jiri was attacking 2nd serves like a man possessed. The only player to ever punish 2nd serves this well was Hingis, of course.

 

[Sudacafan]

Cilic/RBA/Djokovic all in the 40s-50s% of 2nd serve points won. No coincidence. Jiri was attacking 2nd serves like a man possessed. The only player to ever punish 2nd serves this well was Hingis, of course.

Jiri seems to share life obsessions with Mr. Srsh.

 

[Checkmate]

Cilic/RBA/Djokovic all in the 40s-50s% of 2nd serve points won. No coincidence. Jiri was attacking 2nd serves like a man possessed. The only player to ever punish 2nd serves this well was Hingis, of course.

But did his shoes make squeaking sounds in the process? If yes, let me consult the head of the Department of Light Tennis, and get him disqualified.

 

[tex123]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

Fast courts and power players - big 3 would struggle in the order Djokovic, Nadal and then Federer. Their style is built for slow homogenous courts.

That's what I've been saying all along. Sampras would eat them alive and Agassi is very underrated.

 

[RS]

Totally EXPOSED by a strong, powerful big server who can take the racquet out of his hands like Vesely.

0-2 vs. Jiri, Kyrgios, Safin. 1-2 vs. Karlovic. Lost in '12-13 to Isner in late rounds of Masters. Got completely flummoxed by Medvedev's big serve in the USO final, lost his rhythm and his mind. Big serving Zverev has taken huge Olympics and WTF wins off of him.

He even has a losing record to that MUG Andy Roddick

Yeah he can win if you give him rhythm like that Majorcan Moonballer or choke 40-15 like the Swiss Fraud, but try getting away with that against real POWER players.

He still gets aced by retired Ivanisevic and Becker in practice, imagine them in their prime. Add Rosset, Krajicek, Rusedski, Rafter, and of course PETE to the equation and he's going home with a plate at best.

Just like he beat Federer in 14/15 slam matches when Federer was reaching finals barely dropping service games

 

[TimHenmanATG]

Simply put: he wouldn't be able to.

 

[Incognito]

Novak's vulnerability vs. big servers is why I've long maintained that, if we must choose, Murray is the best returner of their generation. Like Dre before him Muzz was/is just kryptonite for servebots, and it'd take a stud like Pistol and Boris or a wizard like Edberg and Rafter to tear down that wall that is the Murray RoS.

That said Muzz is a little too defensive, and while Novak may strike a good balance between Dre's hyper-aggression and Ahn-dee's Pong-ism Jimbo's return is even more versatile. Nole would still clean up at Wimbledon barring peak/prime Pistol/Fred/Mac, but a GOATing Ivanisevic/Krajicek/Stich would indeed be too much for him.

And of course he'd still dominate his pet Slam Down Under, and steal 1-2 FOs and a couple more USOs regardless of competition. In short there's no era where Djoker wouldn't be a GOAT candidate.

I agree, Murray and Federer are the best against big servers.

However, Rafter and Edberg (IMO, two of the 3 best volleyers of the 90s) don’t have enough big serves to trouble Djokovic or Nadal.

 

[speedysteve]

No poly, smaller/faster tennis balls, faster fast courts and faster slower courts!
Best guess is Novak would have learned to serve better younger, and been better at volleying and overheads.
Probably done okay
Or he would have been a clay court specialist.

 

[Entername]

Aren't there more big servers now than before though? I remember when Pete first hit 130 on his serve and everyone was in awe and now every player can hit 130 on their first serves.

 

[Incognito]

No poly, smaller/faster tennis balls, faster fast courts and faster slower courts!
Best guess is Novak would have learned to serve better younger, and been better at volleying and overheads.
Probably done okay
Or he would have been a clay court specialist.

faster courts but primitive rackets. Lendl said groundstrokes are quicker today, players hit harder.