Hypothetical Wimbledon match: 2006 Federer vs 2021 Berretini with prime Nalbandian backhand

Who wins at Wimbledon, 2006 Federer vs 2021 Berretini with prime Nalbandian BH?

  • 2006 Federer in 3

    Votes: 12 52.2%
  • 2006 Federer in 4

    Votes: 4 17.4%
  • 2006 Federer in 5

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • 2021 Berretini in 5

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • 2021 Berretini in 4

    Votes: 3 13.0%
  • 2021 Berretini in 3

    Votes: 1 4.3%

  • Total voters
    23

Megafanoftennis100

Professional
Of course, in a completely fair match, 2006 Federer easily demolishes 2021 Berretini on any surface.
But I think we tennis fans can unanimously agree that Berretini's biggest weakness, by far, is his backhand. In 2021, Berretini was a top 10 ATP player, thanks to his massive serves and forehands, although, let's face it: his backhand was even worse than that of some semi-pros. Heck, I have even seen a USTA 6.0 tennis player with a better backhand than Berretini (although to be fair, the player's biggest strength was his backhand).
If we were to ask ourselves, which is the bigger obstacle to a tennis player's career, injuries to Nadal or backhand to Berretini, the answer is, without a shadow of doubt, the latter.

With that being said, David Nalbandian in his prime is the player with arguably the greatest two-handed backhand of all time. I know many people would say this title belongs to Djokovic, although on TTW, I think many of you would consider his backhand to be not even top 20 best of all time (yes, I have seen some people say this).

Hence, what if prime Berretini replaced his backhand with prime Nalbandian's backhand, but retained all of his other original skills, e.g. his serves, forehands, volleys, etc.?
Then, how would he fare against 2006 Roger Federer in a match at Wimbledon?

Bonus round: if Berretini still loses terribly, then give him Jannik Sinner's mental strength and see how it goes.
 

Third Serve

Talk Tennis Guru
I mean if you give a player fundamentally different groundstrokes, his whole playing style could change.

That said, a good backhand would definitely make him a more formidable player, but his movement and return would still be exploitable issues. I see such a match being pretty straightforward for Roger.
 

NAS

Hall of Fame
I mean if you give a player fundamentally different groundstrokes, his whole playing style could change.

That said, a good backhand would definitely make him a more formidable player, but his movement and return would still be exploitable issues. I see such a match being pretty straightforward for Roger.
His movement is decent, part of the problem is to hide his bh like Tsits and too some extent casper also, in that process his movement start to look more bad than it is.

If he did have a good bh, his return will also improve and with his big serve and fh he will be dangerous, ofcourse not beating fed, but can cauae him problem like winning a set on that serve and fh combo alone ( with Nalbandian bh in the mix)
I will ask you to See two matches where his bh holds and he did cause big problem
Madrid final against Zverev and qf against Novak, he really Frustated both and that too on slow surface clay, apart from second set he was causing huge problem that day to Novak because his bh was Looking good.
 

ibbi

G.O.A.T.
I hate these cross-generational hypotheticals with a passion, but this one seems fairly straightforward, ignoring the fact that literally anything can happen on any given day.

Look at their match there in 2019. I believe the words Berrettini used to describe it were that he got taught a lesson. The only question is, what is going to make the bigger difference in shifting that scoreline away from what it was - Federer being 13 years younger, or Berrettini being 2 years older/more experienced, and having a much better backhand?

Maybe it'd be 3 more tightly contested sets, maybe Berrettini might sneak 1, but that's about as good as I'd expect it to get for him.

 

Aabye5

G.O.A.T.
Of course, in a completely fair match, 2006 Federer easily demolishes 2021 Berretini on any surface.
But I think we tennis fans can unanimously agree that Berretini's biggest weakness, by far, is his backhand. In 2021, Berretini was a top 10 ATP player, thanks to his massive serves and forehands, although, let's face it: his backhand was even worse than that of some semi-pros. Heck, I have even seen a USTA 6.0 tennis player with a better backhand than Berretini (although to be fair, the player's biggest strength was his backhand).
If we were to ask ourselves, which is the bigger obstacle to a tennis player's career, injuries to Nadal or backhand to Berretini, the answer is, without a shadow of doubt, the latter.

With that being said, David Nalbandian in his prime is the player with arguably the greatest two-handed backhand of all time. I know many people would say this title belongs to Djokovic, although on TTW, I think many of you would consider his backhand to be not even top 20 best of all time (yes, I have seen some people say this).

Hence, what if prime Berretini replaced his backhand with prime Nalbandian's backhand, but retained all of his other original skills, e.g. his serves, forehands, volleys, etc.?
Then, how would he fare against 2006 Roger Federer in a match at Wimbledon?

Bonus round: if Berretini still loses terribly, then give him Jannik Sinner's mental strength and see how it goes.

Isn't this just Mark Philippoussis?
 

Aabye5

G.O.A.T.
Federer likes playing players like Berrettini. I am not sure there are many ways to fix that fundamental matchup issue.

Sinner vs Federer, Djokovic vs Federer, or Alcaraz vs Federer would all be better questions.
 

BauerAlmeida

Hall of Fame
Federer wins, but people underestimate how much better Berrettini would be with Nalbandina's backhand. We are talking about world-class groundstrokes on both sides and an elite serve. Plus, his return would become much better too.
 

beltsman

G.O.A.T.
Fed would beat him even harder in this case since he'd take him (slightly) more seriously.

Lol, this. Against the real Berretini Fed would get bored and cruise to a 6-4 7-5 6-2 victory. Against a "real threat" Berretini, Fed would step on the gas and win 6-1 6-3 6-2.
 

Juice4080

Semi-Pro
That's just your opinion, no objective truth there.

I can easily say Fed was further from his peak than Sampras was from his.

Man about 90% of everything you write is juat that, opinions you're trying to pass off as objective truths. Have some self awareness
 

inflation_era

Professional
Man about 90% of everything you write is juat that, opinions you're trying to pass off as objective truths. Have some self awareness

I wasn't saying I had objective truth in this case. I said his opinion is not worth more than mine. Check yourself before replying.
 

Pheasant

Legend
Giving Berrettini a Nalbandian would allow him to challenge Fed a bit more.

I'd take Fed 7-6, 7-5, 7-6.
 
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