GabeT
G.O.A.T.
I am not fond of GOAT discussions, they can be fun but ultimately pointless. But of course we will have a new round of them now that Wimbledon is over.
To me the comparison that is interesting and actually useful is between Nole and Rafa, since they are roughly the same age and their careers overlap heavily. Also they both have very distinct career accomplishments.
As of today Nole beats Rafa in two of the four Slams, but Nadal still has more Slam wins in total. To some extent this highlights the growing importance of the FO, a single tournament, when measuring Nadal's accomplishments. It is perfectly possible that Nole will end with less Slam wins than Nadal but beating him in three of the four Slams.
Nole trails in the H2H but that's a useless metric, since the worse Nadal plays the less likely they will meet. Anyone doubt Nole would have beaten Nadal in the AO or Wimbledon this year?
Nole trails in M1000s but for how long? That could change this year or early next. And Nole has more WTFs of course.
As a consequence of all this Nole beats Nadal at weeks at number 1 and by December will beat Nadal at YE1 according to the ATP. He already beats Nadal as year end champion according to the ITF.
We can actually talk of a Nole era, a multi year span where Nole dominated. Nadal doesn't have that. The closest was 2010-2011 but Nole stopped him.
When you add it all up for me Nole looks like the one that will end with the better tennis career.
My two cents, of course.
To me the comparison that is interesting and actually useful is between Nole and Rafa, since they are roughly the same age and their careers overlap heavily. Also they both have very distinct career accomplishments.
As of today Nole beats Rafa in two of the four Slams, but Nadal still has more Slam wins in total. To some extent this highlights the growing importance of the FO, a single tournament, when measuring Nadal's accomplishments. It is perfectly possible that Nole will end with less Slam wins than Nadal but beating him in three of the four Slams.
Nole trails in the H2H but that's a useless metric, since the worse Nadal plays the less likely they will meet. Anyone doubt Nole would have beaten Nadal in the AO or Wimbledon this year?
Nole trails in M1000s but for how long? That could change this year or early next. And Nole has more WTFs of course.
As a consequence of all this Nole beats Nadal at weeks at number 1 and by December will beat Nadal at YE1 according to the ATP. He already beats Nadal as year end champion according to the ITF.
We can actually talk of a Nole era, a multi year span where Nole dominated. Nadal doesn't have that. The closest was 2010-2011 but Nole stopped him.
When you add it all up for me Nole looks like the one that will end with the better tennis career.
My two cents, of course.
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Djokovic is making a serious mark now. This year he is all but assured the year end number one ranking. He's going to take away Rafa's Masters series record, that is plain to see. He will also take the lead in the H2H, because there is no court now that Djokovic can't or hasn't beaten Rafa in. A crazy time in the sport. Rafa challenging for Roger's place now has to worry about his own place also.
