BorgTheGOAT
Legend
You are right I have corrected it.
Who has won the most titles without dropping a set?
- Thread starter clayqueen
- Start date
_phantom
Hall of Fame
Different slams.
Nadal - French Open (2008, 2010, 2017, 2020)
Borg - Wimbledon (1976), French Open (1978, 1980)
Federer - Australian Open (2007), Wimbledon (2017)
Rosewall - Australian Open (1971)
Năstase - French Open (1973)
_phantom
Hall of Fame
True. But not as impressive as completing it with some bagels in the finals against fellow GOAT candidates
_phantom
Hall of Fame
The question was which zero-set-dropping slam wins were more impressive. For me, 2008 and 2020 stand out because of the opponents in the finals and the scorelines.
abmk
Bionic Poster
2010 and 2017 better than 2020.
2010 final was against the guy who had beaten him last year and was Sod was certainly better than 2020 RG djoko
2017 RG final is his best performance post 2012 RG and Nadal was great before the final in RG 2017, unlike in 2020.
mike danny
Bionic Poster
Those opponents weren't really that impressive. The 2008 SF vs Djokovic was the more impressive performance.
BorgTheGOAT
Legend
1978 still remains the one with the fewest games dropped. Destroying the defending champion 6-1,6-1,6-3 in the final, winning two matches by the score of 6-0,6-1,6-0… Still better for me than all the Nadal wins.
_phantom
Hall of Fame
I understand what you guys are saying. Just the name of opponents in the finals and the scorelines do the trick for me.
_phantom
Hall of Fame
IIRC, Nadal lost 34 games but not sure which year. In any case, when I consider two 20-slam winners in the semi and final, 2008 comes out as better than 78.
Borg doing it on both the slowest and the fastest surfaces was something special, no doubt about that.
BorgTheGOAT
Legend
He lost 35 in 2017 but this included a mid match retirement from Careño Busta in the quarters, in 2008 it was 41.
Fact is those two 20 slam winners both have clay as their worst surface by some margin, whereas Vilas has clay as his strongest surface.
Of course Djokovic and Federer are by light years the better overall players but solely restricted to clay, one can argue that Vilas is not far away from them. On top, both Federer and Djokovic were not exactly at their best during these matches (Djokovic while already strong was still a bit away from his peak and Federer had a complete off day in the final), while Vilas was the defending champion in 78 and had also won the 77 USO on clay. Saying that 78 Vilas on clay was a tougher opponent than both Federer and Djokovic in 2008 is not too far fetched.
BorgTheGOAT
Legend
Vilas in 77 with 41. However, also first rounds were best of three so it does not really count.
TennisFan3
Talk Tennis Guru
Just goes to show how much better Nadal has been on clay vs the field. I mean his level has been several tiers over the next best players, which is why the straight set wins.
Has there EVER been a player, on any surface, that had such a BIG gap on SKILL level vs the field? I'm thinking Sampras on Grass, Borg on clay etc - but none was so dominant as Nadal is on clay.
Has there EVER been a player, on any surface, that had such a BIG gap on SKILL level vs the field? I'm thinking Sampras on Grass, Borg on clay etc - but none was so dominant as Nadal is on clay.
_phantom
Hall of Fame
Clay, BO3. Crazy.
BorgTheGOAT
Legend
Yes. Mac in 79 is the second best with 52 games lost, but other than Vilas he was playing best of five in the first four rounds as well. Tough to say whose run was better or how many more games Vilas would have lost had it been normal slam format.
NonP
Legend
U may wanna bookmark this page:
It's missing more recent editions, but should still cover most of the OE. Unsurprisingly RG with the highest margin for error features the majority of the highest GW%s.
As @BorgTheGOAT noted you can't quite compare '77 Vilas' USO run with its closest rivals cuz of the surface factor, but it was impressive nonetheless, without question Willy's most notable achievement. Lendl really is da man at Flushing with the next 3 highest %s among the champs - players filling up the stat sheets prior to the final is more common than you think - but '84 Mac's 68.3% is arguably even better given his ATG 5-setter vs. Jimbo in the SF which may well be the single greatest USO match of the OE.
Agassi at the '03 AO remains the only one to break the truly rarefied 70% ceiling on hard, but he clearly owed much of his historic outing to the lackluster draw. '95 Dre with 67.9% remains the most dominant AO run of the HC era, with '11 and '19 Novak not far behind.
As you can see 65% (thru the F, not earlier rounds) usually means a championship, while 70% makes you virtually unbeatable. Of course there are some variations depending on the surface, which brings moi to....
Borg and Bull on dirt are indeed in a class by themselves, but when it comes to the most dominant runs/season '84 Mac reigns supreme:
Most dominating tournament by a player?
What is the most dominating tournament by a player so far? Nadal just gave 41 games in total out of 7 matches in FO 2008, and won all in straight sets!! Only player that took him o a tiebreak in a set Djokovic in semis; see the scores here: 2008 French Open – Men's singles - Wikipedia Look at...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com
I doubt anyone will ever equal Mac's otherworldly degree of separation from the rest of the field on all surfaces, when Fred or Djoker at his absolute peak fell short and even Borg with his CC beatdowns couldn't surpass his greatest rival. His (singles) Slam tally may not be GOAT material, but his tennis surely was.
mike danny
Bionic Poster
What was Fed's % at the 2007 AO? His most dominant GS run.U may wanna bookmark this page:
It's missing more recent editions, but should still cover most of the OE. Unsurprisingly RG with the highest margin for error features the majority of the highest GW%s.
As @BorgTheGOAT noted you can't quite compare '77 Vilas' USO run with its closest rivals cuz of the surface factor, but it was impressive nonetheless, without question Willy's most notable achievement. Lendl really is da man at Flushing with the next 3 highest %s among the champs - players filling up the stat sheets prior to the final is more common than you think - but '84 Mac's 68.3% is arguably even better given his ATG 5-setter vs. Jimbo in the SF which may well be the single greatest USO match of the OE.
Agassi at the '03 AO remains the only one to break the truly rarefied 70% ceiling on hard, but he clearly owed much of his historic outing to the lackluster draw. '95 Dre with 67.9% remains the most dominant AO run of the HC era, with '11 and '19 Novak not far behind.
As you can see 65% (thru the F, not earlier rounds) usually means a championship, while 70% makes you virtually unbeatable. Of course there are some variations depending on the surface, which brings moi to....
Borg and Bull on dirt are indeed in a class by themselves, but when it comes to the most dominant runs/season '84 Mac reigns supreme:
Most dominating tournament by a player?
What is the most dominating tournament by a player so far? Nadal just gave 41 games in total out of 7 matches in FO 2008, and won all in straight sets!! Only player that took him o a tiebreak in a set Djokovic in semis; see the scores here: 2008 French Open – Men's singles - Wikipedia Look at...
I doubt anyone will ever equal Mac's otherworldly degree of separation from the rest of the field on all surfaces, when Fred or Djoker at his absolute peak fell short and even Borg with his CC beatdowns couldn't surpass his greatest rival. His (singles) Slam tally may not be GOAT material, but his tennis surely was.
NonP
Legend
64.7% (132/204) but that ain't even his most dominant AO run cuz he posted 65.24% (137/210) in '04, just ahead of '93 Courier's 65.20% (133/204). Of course the difference is so minuscule - and the draws ain't far apart - '07 Fred with its/his perfect 21-0 gets the ultimate nod.
His overall best run actually came at Wimbledon where he won 66.3% (134/202) in '06, which trails only '84 Mac's 68.0% (134/197) and '76 Borg's 65.5% (133/203). But Mac's edge here is even greater than it looks cuz nobody connects on his passes more than 40% of the time and facing more S&V in '06 would've almost certainly hurt Fred's % a tiny bit.
Baseliners tend to excel at this GW% game cuz attacking almost by definition is a risky strategy, and while Fred is primarily a baseliner himself his versatile game usually involves more moving parts than a Lendl/Dre/Djoker's, hence his seeming inferiority in this department. Jimbo for all his world-class groundies was in reality more of an all-courter, which explains his surprisingly thin presence on the list despite an impressive 67.6% (138/204) in '83.
That's also why ('84) Mac is truly without equal, though calling him an attacker is like describing the Mona Lisa strictly as a portrait cuz his aggressive game was unusual even among the top S&Vers. His can opener, rip-and-charge, half volleys everywhere and no-backswing volleys pose such a unique set of challenges I do think he'd eventually produce his BOAT season regardless of era. Doesn't necessarily mean he's the BOAT vs. other ATGs, but such a sui generis game is bound to flummox the field to a degree never seen before or since.
abmk
Bionic Poster
eh, with hold%s going up and overall game% by top players coming down a little, that'd compensate.
Fed did face 3 SnVers in Wim 06 anyways - Henman, Mahut and Ancic.
For all of Djokovic’s great stats I feel this is one where the other big 2 are far better at. Djokovic drops sets to mugs even in tournaments at his peak.
It was obviously going to be Nadal as he at his best was ruthless on Clay and even past his best he still was so far clear most couldn’t get a set
It was obviously going to be Nadal as he at his best was ruthless on Clay and even past his best he still was so far clear most couldn’t get a set
Similar threads
