Is Novak Djokovic taking advantage of one of the weakest seasons in tennis history?

[aphex]

The form was not stronger at the top last year. In fact your whole argument rests on the form being stronger FURTHER DOWN, as you keep saying Nadal getting to the finals proves this year is weaker - well in getting to the final he isn't coming up against top players that often, it's the top players he's going to meet IN the final. The form at the top is stronger this year because they're actually going deep rather than losing early leaving Nadal the only only top player standing, like last year. Nadal for large parts of the year was the only strong player that was not having serious problems with their game. The fact that Berdych made a major final, that Verdasco and Ferrer contested 2 masters finals on clay, that Roddick and Ljubicic won masters titles tells you everything about last year

You can say his form is not good, but that's just your opinion. I have actual facts to back up mine. If Nadal was better last year why couldn't he win the IW/Miami double that was his by default? He blew matches (and titles) he should have won, he lost to Davydenko after winning the first set 7-6. But because he won a lot of stuff people forget this and imagine he was playing faultless tennis last year. Remember

Doha - lost to Davydeko 6-0 6-7 4-6
AO - lost to Murray 3-6 6-7 0-3
IW - lost to Ljubicic 6-3 4-6-6-7
Miami - lost to Roddick 6-4 3-6 3-6
Canada - lost to Murray 3-6 4-6
Cinci - lost to Baghdatis 4-6 6-4 4-6
Bangkok - Lost to Garcia Lopez 6-2 6-7 3-6
Tokyo - lost to Monfils 1-6 5-7
Shanghai - lost to Meltzer 1-6 6-3 3-6

Most of these losses were shocking and either featured him throwing away a chance to win or getting dominated.

I've spelled out tournament by tournament how Nadal had mainly easier chances last year to win everything Djokovic has won this year, ignore it if you like but I've provided strong evidence, and people have not provided evidence of how this season is weaker.

You're forgetting the WTF loss...

 

[DRII]

Nadal won Tokio.

The only weird losses by Nadal HC standards are with Ljuba, Roddick(especially after dominating one set and a half of both those encounters), Baghdatis(had shots to win late in the match and he had never lost before against him) and GGL(converting 1 BP out of 26 LOL ).

Murray and Davydenko are naturally better HC'ers and in Shanghai he was tired as it was his third straight HC tourney and Melzer was in fine form. I have no idea how Nadal won that set with Melzer as he was pretty much terrible in that match.

What you are missing from your analysis is that Nadal didn't start 2010 well. In fact until the masterclass shown in the clay-grass season, he was without title for 11 months. So in the first third of 2010 he wasn't exactly terrific on confidence(he had some pretty big lapses) but he actually played better tennis at the start of 2010 than at the start of 2011. In 2010 he started low on confidence, in 2011 he had plenty of confidence after his great 2010 but had physical issues from the get-go, a flu in doha and a freak injury in the ferrer match. That's why you won't find any match in 2011 to match Nadal's playing level from early 2010(even when he was losing). Nadal's level in losing to Davy in Doha 2010 and Murray in AO(first 2 sets) surpasses most of his matches in 2011.

Good points.

I'll admit that when I'm comparing Nadal's 2010 form, which I think is several steps higher than his form this year, I'm thinking mostly of his GS performances (USO and French, Wimbledon) and even his WTF performance - even though he lost in the finals to Federer. Considering the conditions at the WTF (completely dead court with hardly any bounce) I felt Nadal played very well, taking Federer to three sets and defeating Murray in a great match.

I don't see how anyone, who is being honest, could say that Nadal's highest level so far this year is even close to his highest form in 2010! Truth be told, Nadal didn't deserve to win the French this year - given the way he was playing, Federer should have won it...

 

[celoft]

Tennis this year is a one man show. Sports need rivalries to make them interesting and Nole has no rivals this year. No decent nemesis. Fedal are in decline. Murray is an underachiever. Del Potro is injury prone and lame.

 

[beast of mallorca]

Thanks for confirming you are only stating your opinion (a useless one at that).
We are discussing facts here, so you should probably stay out of the conversation.

Btw, Mathematics#Economics, dumbo.

Wow, Aphex is banned again ? I didn't even have the chance to welcome him back. What did he do this time ? It's a shame

 

[heftylefty]

Djokovic is taking advantage not because this is a weak season. (There are not weak seasons in Tennis.) but by rocking gear of Legends, Sergio Tacchini.

That's right folks, it's all about the ST. No1e is following the path of Mac, Mats and Pete. This could mean only one thing: Soon Nike will come a knockin'. We have seen this before with Mac, Mats and Pete. But in these tough economic times, Nike is going to have to cut some people loose to sign No1e. I would hate to be one or two people struggling while wearing Nike now.

History has away of repeating itself.

 

[NamRanger]

With that kind of logic, one could say that Fed took advantage of Rafa's injuries in 2009 and Nadal took advantage of Djoko hitting rock bottom with his serve in 2010 (while Fed is obviously aging). There is no difference between 2011 and other tennis seasons.

Ah the wonders of double standards.

 

[Netspirit]

I do think that the era has been weak for a while. It has been a Fedal duo show for a few years now with nobody else even remotely capable of contesting majors. The gap between the top 2 and the rest of the tour was enormous but the top 2 rivalry made everybody overlook it.

Now Djokovic has improved his game, Federer has declined even more, and Nadal has started his own downward glide too (just started - he'll have a few bounce-backs a-la Federer 2009). This finally exposed the same gap - there is nobody except Djokovic on top, and unless he gets a rival pronto the ATP will get as much hate as the WTA has been getting recently.

 

[NadalAgassi]

I do think that the era has been weak for a while. It has been a Fedal duo show for a few years now with nobody else even remotely capable of contesting majors. The gap between the top 2 and the rest of the tour was enormous but the top 2 rivalry made everybody overlook it.

Now Djokovic has improved his game, Federer has declined even more, and Nadal has started his own downward glide too (just started - he'll have a few bounce-backs a-la Federer 2009). This finally exposed the same gap - there is nobody except Djokovic on top, and unless he gets a rival pronto the ATP will get as much hate as the WTA has been getting recently.

That is what I often said. This era has nowhere near the depth of the Sampras-Agassi era, the Lendl-Wilander-Becker-Edberg era, the McEnroe-Borg-Connors era. Federer, Nadal, and now that he is finally playing to his full potential Djokovic, have all capatilized on this.

Guys like Roddick and Hewitt were hard workers and big fighters but never had the talent or weapons to become 5 or 6 slam winners. Now you have underachievers like Murray and enigmas like Del Potro, and guys who dont have the ability to win a slam in any era really like Soderling, Berdych, and Ferrer who are strictly 2nd tier caliber.

 

[5555]

I do think that the era has been weak for a while.

How many famous experts claim that we are now in weak era?

 

[tennis_fan_182]

That is what I often said. This era has nowhere near the depth of the Sampras-Agassi era, the Lendl-Wilander-Becker-Edberg era, the McEnroe-Borg-Connors era. Federer, Nadal, and now that he is finally playing to his full potential Djokovic, have all capatilized on this.

Guys like Roddick and Hewitt were hard workers and big fighters but never had the talent or weapons to become 5 or 6 slam winners. Now you have underachievers like Murray and enigmas like Del Potro, and guys who dont have the ability to win a slam in any era really like Soderling, Berdych, and Ferrer who are strictly 2nd tier caliber.

But Murray IS at least 2nd tier like Soderling, Berdych and Ferrer. H'es not an underachiever and doesn't have the potential to ever win a slam.

 

[batz]

But Murray IS at least 2nd tier like Soderling, Berdych and Ferrer. H'es not an underachiever and doesn't have the potential to ever win a slam.

Murray is just like those 3 - what with them all being years older than him and the 3 of them combined having the same number of slam finals and 4 less masters series titles than him. And with all of them not having been ranked as high as Murray.

Yep - Murray is just like them.

Have you ever been right about anything?

 

[christinamaniac7]

Sure the muggiest era in tennis history! Fed and Nadal ain't the same, murray is even more inconsistent than before, A-rod is clearly fallen out of shape by any means and the likes of sod and berdych aren't as good to stop nole who's indeed improved a lot!

 

[namelessone]

Sure the muggiest era in tennis history! Fed and Nadal ain't the same, murray is even more inconsistent than before, A-rod is clearly fallen out of shape by any means and the likes of sod and berdych aren't as good to stop nole who's indeed improved a lot!

Time needs to pass before this can called an era. Novak dominates massively for half of the year and suddenly he has an era? Guess McEnroe had his own mini-era back in 84'.

LAWL.

 

[christinamaniac7]

Well this might be the beginning of a new era... The era that ends with fedal domination and begins with their own fall and novak's rise!!

 

[Raiden]

Extremely weak reasoning here!

I don't understand why you and some others are just ill-equipped to make qualitative judgments on the players' forms and level of tennis.

This season's level of play by the top players has been relatively weak, besides Nole.

Nadal's results speak more to this than Nole's does! In previous years Nadal would not have made it to so many finals playing the way he is right now, because competition was stronger than this year's!

Garbage.

It is your reasoning that is the weaker one.

One could argue that in fact 2010 is the a weaker season than 2011.

Last year's finalists were sub-prime/weak (relatively speaking) players like Berdych and Soderling.

That hasn't happened in three of the 4 slams this year so far.

 

[abmk]

^^

agreed, hilarious to see DRII downgrading nole's 2011 season saying it was because field was weak when in fact the field was just as weak/strong (I'd say slightly weaker, especially at the majors ) in 2010 when rafa dominated

 

[abmk]

Extremely weak reasoning here!

I don't understand why you and some others are just ill-equipped to make qualitative judgments on the players' forms and level of tennis.

This season's level of play by the top players has been relatively weak, besides Nole.

Nadal's results speak more to this than Nole's does! In previous years Nadal would not have made it to so many finals playing the way he is right now, because competition was stronger than this year's!

oh and who else besides Nadal was playing that well in 2010 ?

 

[christinamaniac7]

oh and who else besides Nadal was playing that well in 2010 ?

Soderling and berdych... Murray to some extent and also novak and fed did very well in the 2nd half of last year, just to name a few!!

 

[DRII]

^^

agreed, hilarious to see DRII downgrading nole's 2011 season saying it was because field was weak when in fact the field was just as weak/strong (I'd say slightly weaker, especially at the majors ) in 2010 when rafa dominated

I'm not downgrading anyone's year! What Nole has done is quite remarkable, although it is not an era as some of you have stated.

The point is, the level of play is lower this year simple as that...

Quite ironic that I am being accused of being a Nole hater, when I was one of the first to claim that he was the best balanced players in the atp tour and that the other players realized this and sometimes treated him poorly because of it!!!

 

[NadalAgassi]

Soderling and berdych... Murray to some extent and also novak and fed did very well in the 2nd half of last year, just to name a few!!

Federer was also much better last year at times. He played horrible from March-June. However the rest of the year he was quite good, and he won the Australian Open, Cincinnati, and WTF, along with making another 2 Masters finals. This year he just looks like an old man wandering around except for the French Open and isnt a threat anymore to even win a Masters let alone a bigger event.

 

[celoft]

Federer was also much better last year at times. He played horrible from March-June. However the rest of the year he was quite good, and he won the Australian Open, Cincinnati, and WTF, along with making another 2 Masters finals. This year he just looks like an old man wandering around except for the French Open and isnt a threat anymore to even win a Masters let alone a bigger event.

No doubt.

2010 Fed > 2011 Fed

 

[DRII]

oh and who else besides Nadal was playing that well in 2010 ?

All the top players were playing better in 2010 than 2011, besides Nole and Fish.

 

[Clarky21]

All the top players were playing better in 2010 than 2011, besides Nole and Fish.

Yes they were,and anyone arguing that point must not have watched any tennis last year if they think the top players are playing anywhere near what they did last year.

 

[abmk]

All the top players were playing better in 2010 than 2011, besides Nole and Fish.

ferrer, tsonga ???

murray is debatable ....

the fact is the 2nd best player ( fed ) in 2010 was not doing as well as the 2nd best player ( nadal ) in 2011

 

[BeHappy]

He is but no more so than Federer was.

 

[Deleted member 77403]

When Federer was cleaning house, it was a weak era.

When Nadal was cleaning house, it was a weak era.

Now Djokovic is cleaning house, it is also a weak era.


What a weak bunch of players in this sport. :shock:

 

[zagor]

Federer was also much better last year at times. He played horrible from March-June. However the rest of the year he was quite good, and he won the Australian Open, Cincinnati, and WTF, along with making another 2 Masters finals. This year he just looks like an old man wandering around except for the French Open and isnt a threat anymore to even win a Masters let alone a bigger event.

I wouldn't exactly agree, Fed's level at 2010 and 2011 AO is similar IMO, his SF match with Novak this year was pretty good and 1st set in particular was some high quality stuff, if he won that one who knows what would have happened(and let's not forget he was also up 5-2 in 2nd set).

At FO it's no comparison, he played way better this year.

Ditto at Wimbledon, he didn't look that great at Wimbledon this year but he was able to somewhat hold his own while at last year's Wimbledon he was absolutely horrendous, his 1st round against Falla was probably the worst tennis I've ever seen him play on Wimbledon grass.

At Montreal/Cincy yes he looked much better last year, no argument there.

 

[DRII]

When Federer was cleaning house, it was a weak era.

When Nadal was cleaning house, it was a weak era.

Now Djokovic is cleaning house, it is also a weak era.


What a weak bunch of players in this sport. :shock:

Would you stop using 'era' so easily. All these players are competing in the same era!

Federer had an amazing 3 or so years in this era, Nadal had two, Nole one -- thus far...

 

[jackson vile]

More Novak hate?

 

[Swissv2]

According to the "experts" on these forums, every year has been called the "weakest era".

LOL

plz.