Couldn't agree with you more on that one.
I think that there is some confusion as to what constitutes a strong or weak era. The way I look at, it doesn't take into account anyone lower than 4 in the rankings., honestly. At the end of the 2004 AO, Federer was no. 1 and behind him were Ferrero, Roddick, and Coria. Roddick finished 2004 as the no. 2 ranked player, and he had lost to all sorts of players. He only lost to Federer 3/18 losses that year. In 2011, Nadal finished no. 2 with 15 losses, 6 of which were to Novak. Federer finished no. 3 and 7/12 losses were to Novak+Nadal. You had the top guys mostly losing to one another and/or the guy above him in the rankings. This was a weak year on tour, yes, but it doesn't debunk the "strong era" claims.
