What is the best match each player played but still lost

metsman

Talk Tennis Guru
Slam or other?
Obviously 07 Wimby for me, but 12 AO also you can't compare to a 250 which was entertaining, but Nadal wasn't really amazing or anything in the sets he lost, he got pushed around a ton. Not even sure he was better there than a match like 2010 Miami, adjusting for the massive disparity in conditions. Obviously you have matches like 06 TMC, 11 Miami in there too if you look at B03.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
A contender for Andre Agassi is the match below, the 2002 San Jose final. Lleyton Hewitt beat Agassi 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. It's one of the cleanest hitting baseline thrillers ever played in tennis history.

Agassi was a little better off the ground but Hewitt was super clutch on serve. The story behind his mini streak against Agassi in 2001-2002.
 

mike danny

Bionic Poster
Federer going 16-1 in TBs in SF/F of Wimbledon (sure some were against weaker opponents, but against the 4 best opponents he faced in all those years, 07 Ned, 08 Ned, 09 Roddick, 04 Roddick he went 7-0 in tiebreaks) or having better numbers against the top 10 in 2004 vs the field, or Pete's serve numbers in Wimbledon finals vs the rest of the field is going above and beyond against the best players though. Djokovic certainly didn't have a habit of raising his game like this, Ned on clay beat up on so much hapless cannon fodder I doubt it's the case for him either. However I think Nadal's numbers on break points are quite good though, and by the eye test he raises his aggression down BPs, at least the good versions of Nadal.
Heck, you can just look at his play in tiebreaks against Nadal and Djokovic at Wimb in general and realize that 2019 was an anomaly and in no way proof of Djoker's superior mental strength, more like unusual mental weakness from Fed that was a first in a Wimb F.
 

mike danny

Bionic Poster
6-3 can be just a minibreak in tiebreak.
The fact the Roger, the grass goat, had 2 pts on serve means 6-3 lead is great but its no big choke.
Djokovic is mentally far better player than Federer.
Far better at playing a worse Fed as well.

Djoker missed like 5 or 6 set points in that tiebreak. Luckily for him, 2015 Fraud was not good enough to make him pay.
 

StrongRule

Talk Tennis Guru
Far better at playing a worse Fed as well.

Djoker missed like 5 or 6 set points in that tiebreak. Luckily for him, 2015 Fraud was not good enough to make him pay.
6 setpoints (2 on serve) during the tiebreak, and 7 during the set in total. Claims that 2015 Djokovic was a god who would have been too much for any version of Federer are just laughable.
 

mike danny

Bionic Poster
6 setpoints (2 on serve) during the tiebreak, and 7 during the set in total. Claims that 2015 Djokovic was a god who would have been too much for any version of Federer are just laughable.
Everyone knows it's much easier to seem mentally on another level to a player older than you who you are physically superior to anyway at that point in time. I certainly wasn't impressed by his mental toughness against Nadal and Murray in 2012-2014, against Stan in 2014-2016 and against Alcaraz in the Wimb F.
 

Third Serve

Talk Tennis Guru
Two breaks in four sets vs one break in four sets, meh.
Djokovic didn’t even break Fed’s serve until the fourth set. 13 return UFEs for him too… somewhat high by his standards even taking into account the length of the match (he had just two in 2022). By far he was more consistently threatening in 2022.
 

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
Everyone putting Federer 2019 match for display

He was trailing Djokovic for entire 4 sets. In the fifth set Djokovic broke at 4-2 I think. Its Federer's luck that he one time lead Djokovic after trailing for 4+ hrs. In the end Djokovic was the better player. I don't care if Federer won 2 sets by a bagel and breadstick. He was always trailing. That's how tennis is played.
 

dking68

G.O.A.T.
Everyone putting Federer 2019 match for display

He was trailing Djokovic for entire 4 sets. In the fifth set Djokovic broke at 4-2 I think. Its Federer's luck that he one time lead Djokovic after trailing for 4+ hrs. In the end Djokovic was the better player. I don't care if Federer won 2 sets by a bagel and breadstick. He was always trailing. That's how tennis is played.
Fed was superior in every stat in the match apart from maybe break points converted
 

puppybutts

Hall of Fame
WTA
Azarenka - vs. Serena, USO 2012 F, USO 2013 F
Kuznetsova - vs. Serena, RG 2013 QF
Stephens - vs. Halep, RG 2018 F
Sharapova - vs. Serena, Miami 2013 F
Kvitova - vs. Jankovic, Wimbledon 2015 R3

ATP - lots of matches already mentioned, not sure about "best" but
Zverev - vs. Djokovic, USO 2021 SF
Murray - vs. Nishikori, USO 2016 QF
Del Potro - vs. Nadal, Wimbledon 2018 QF
Thiem - vs. Del Potro, USO 2017 R4
 
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Rafa4LifeEver

G.O.A.T.
From recent slam winners -

Rafa - 2007 Wimbledon F
Roger - 2006 Rome F
Djokovic - 2013 RG SF
Murray - 2012 Wimbledon F
Wawrinka - 2013 AO 4R
Delpo - 2013 Wimbledon SF
Cilic - 2018 AO F
Thiem - 2019 RG F
Alcaraz - 2022 IW SF
 
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