zagor
Bionic Poster
I think that's due to their games. Depending on the circumstances Fed can mask the injury better because of his serve and more aggressive game. For Nadal, even if his physicality is off like 10% it's an uphil battle.
Whose career has been impaired most by injuries?
- Thread starter Nadalgaenger
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I think that's due to their games. Depending on the circumstances Fed can mask the injury better because of his serve and more aggressive game. For Nadal, even if his physicality is off like 10% it's an uphil battle.
AnOctorokForDinner
Talk Tennis Guru
The three "one Slam wonders" that spring to mind as potential top contenders for years on end who would've likely won more than one if not for their injuries are Roche (though his lone slam was amateur), Cash and del Potro.
He was even injured during Wimbledon 2012, at least in the early rounds.
Im(moral) Winner
G.O.A.T.
Yeah, Wimbledon 2003 and AO 17. Sometimes he's managed to pull off and sometimes he hasn't. Just like RAFA in RG 2014 (if reports are believed) but of course Novak was playing worse there than than Fed's opponent in those slams.
kevaninho
Hall of Fame
Theres a major difference between a game of golf with friends, than playing professional tennis you clown
D
Deleted member 307496
Guest
I do think he'd have a ceiling at some point but if Tipsy can make No. 9 who knows.
Badabing888
Hall of Fame
Theres a major difference between a game of golf with friends, than playing professional tennis you clown
The point was his knee(s) wasn’t that bad 2012 to prevent him doing other things like Golf wherebe had to bend and torque on the knee(s) and he’s never needed surgery on them you numpty. Anyway over 1000 matches played does not indicate injuries have curtailed Rafa’s career. These “enforced” rests are product of his style of play and he knows when to take a break. All this had he not suffered injury he would have won even more is just a reflection of Nadal fans’ “if less is more then just think how much more more would be” mentality instead of accepting the reality that Rafa’s injuries and breaks are part and parcel of why he has been so successful.
FHtennisman
Professional
Wow this Nadal is one special talent.
WhiskeyEE
G.O.A.T.
Theres a major difference between a game of golf with friends, than playing professional tennis you clown
In Nadal's defense, I have had knee problems in the past from overuse and simply walking up and down stairs would be harder than playing golf.
Great post. Nadal has been exceptionally lucky to last as long as he has at the top given the way he must play out of necessity. Other players who were notable for also having great defenses Bruguera and Hewitt would have counted it a blessing had they lasted as long as Nadal.
Theres a major difference between a game of golf with friends, than playing professional tennis you clown
There's an even bigger difference between players who had genuinely serious injuries(Del Potro, Kuerten, Haas, Joachim Johansson) and what ever affliction Nadal's mind believes his body is suffering from. Runs around like a greyhound on speed battling a career ending injury but still comes back again and again more times than Freddy Krueger to win more slams.
Just shows how much off clay he relies on physicality to win matches instead of tennis skill.
That's like saying Usain Bolt is unlucky not to have the world mile record because he's unlucky for tiring out after 20-30 seconds.
Im(moral) Winner
G.O.A.T.
2013 Wimbledon wasn't a bad performance either. Sucks at AO, though.
BVSlam
Professional
To be fair, even though Nadal may have missed out on some slams and some potential extra slam titles, you can't really say a player with 16 slam titles (let's not forget that's second in the open era) was really hindered by his injuries. They didn't prevent him from racking up an enormous amount of slam titles, four #1 finishes etc.
Nishikori is clearly a lot more hindered, but I don't think he's good enough to ever build the kind of momentum to win big titles consistently. He actually hasn't won a single big title, and made one Masters (granted, could have won that) and one slam final. He has few other standout results, which I think has a lot more reasons than just injuries, as good as he can be. Something does lack in his game.
Del Potro is the most hindered for a variety of reasons. I think he's a little overrated in terms of his tennis, so I'm not someone who thinks he could have been a consistent slam winner along with Fedalovic etc like some do. However, he was clearly improving quickly since 2008, won a very impressive US Open title in 2009 and then the injuries did set him back. His absences are just too frequent and consistently long, so much that he loses too much rhythm. He also, more so than the other two, needed to tweak and even compromise his game quite a lot to prevent more injuries, as is seen with his backhand now.
But it's actually players like him, in my opinion, that show Fedalovic have something special that allowed them to dominate the field which I just don't see even a fully healthy Delpo ever doing in his career. There's something mechanically fine-tuned about their games and point construction that other players don't seem to have.
Nishikori is clearly a lot more hindered, but I don't think he's good enough to ever build the kind of momentum to win big titles consistently. He actually hasn't won a single big title, and made one Masters (granted, could have won that) and one slam final. He has few other standout results, which I think has a lot more reasons than just injuries, as good as he can be. Something does lack in his game.
Del Potro is the most hindered for a variety of reasons. I think he's a little overrated in terms of his tennis, so I'm not someone who thinks he could have been a consistent slam winner along with Fedalovic etc like some do. However, he was clearly improving quickly since 2008, won a very impressive US Open title in 2009 and then the injuries did set him back. His absences are just too frequent and consistently long, so much that he loses too much rhythm. He also, more so than the other two, needed to tweak and even compromise his game quite a lot to prevent more injuries, as is seen with his backhand now.
But it's actually players like him, in my opinion, that show Fedalovic have something special that allowed them to dominate the field which I just don't see even a fully healthy Delpo ever doing in his career. There's something mechanically fine-tuned about their games and point construction that other players don't seem to have.
Im(moral) Winner
G.O.A.T.
He made 3 master finals. Madrid in 2014, Miami and Toronto in 2016.
EloQuent
Legend
Im(moral) Winner
G.O.A.T.
EloQuent
Legend
QF in 09 just when he was rising to the top. Then 10 was injured. Since then he made QF another time but was absent a bunch of times.
kevaninho
Hall of Fame
You will need to get me some quotes from Nadal and his team that said he had career threatening injuries. Not rubbish from the tabloids pal
mike danny
Bionic Poster
Nishikori has reached 3 masters finals: Madrid 2014, Miami 2016 and Torono 2016.
Chanwan
G.O.A.T.
Before he was "mainly" a clay player, he was considered an indoor HC specialist. The guy could play on every surface.
so much this
I wondered when I would read something like this, you didn't disappoint
Tbh, Baker is so much of what if that it's not even funny to discuss. We've got no way of knowing whether he could reach top-10 or not. And when did Delpo reach another slam final? He won his first slam, being the first guy to take down Fedal in a slam, at the age of 20. Then he got injured shortly after that.
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EloQuent
Legend
That is interesting, I did not know that.
Chanwan
G.O.A.T.
His indoor stats are pretty, pretty good. Winning percentage: 74 %, more than 10 % higher than his winning percentage on clay and almost 10 % higher than his winning percentage on HC.
Compare those indoor stats to Rafa (68) and great indoor players like Delpo (71) and Tsonga (71) and it looks pretty great. Fed's at 81 and Djoko and Murray are at 78,5. So I would assume the Sod has the 4th best match winning percentage indoor in the past 15 years.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/robin-soderling/sa49/fedex-atp-win-loss
You might also recall that Rafa schooled him 0 & 1 in Rome 2-3 weeks prior to their FO meeting. It really was the surprise of the century in tennis.
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BVSlam
Professional
Oh wow, I didn't remember those. I stand corrected, thank you! Well, that's a bit better at least. Too bad he wasn't able to capitalise, especially Madrid and Toronto were possible with Nadal's/Djokovic's forms.
You will need to get me some quotes from Nadal and his team that said he had career threatening injuries. Not rubbish from the tabloids pal
Hyperbole
Chanwan
G.O.A.T.
He was winning Madrid until he got injured. Even Tio Toni said Rafa got lucky in that one.
every7
Hall of Fame
SELES (injury from stabbing affected every level of her game, forced her out for a long time, and broke what was a developing pattern of her dominating the game for many, many years to come)
DEL POTRO Effectively lost his peak years owing to wrist injuries exacerbated by Medical incompetence and over-playing / injury management
BRIAN BAKER Ethereally talented ball-striker with hand eye co-ordination on par with Agassi. Would have been a 10 year top 30 player. Absolutely cruelled by one lower leg injury after another
DEL POTRO Effectively lost his peak years owing to wrist injuries exacerbated by Medical incompetence and over-playing / injury management
BRIAN BAKER Ethereally talented ball-striker with hand eye co-ordination on par with Agassi. Would have been a 10 year top 30 player. Absolutely cruelled by one lower leg injury after another
FHtennisman
Professional
Surprised that Djokovic has a lower winning % than Fed, I don't recall him losing many indoor matches over the last few years - he only plays Paris + ATP Finals right as indoor tourneys?
Either way, that's another impressive record for Fed - one thing I find surprising about it is that it's lower than his career winning %, would've expected it to be a smidgeon higher.
EloQuent
Legend
Could be that Finals skews the indoor number for all the them, because it's the only time that the competition is exclusively top 10.
FHtennisman
Professional
Perhaps, was wondering if matches in outdoor tournaments that have a roof and have been completely been played indoors count as Indoor or not?
EloQuent
Legend
I believe they count as outdoors.
FHtennisman
Professional
Think Hamburg was indoor clay for a while and Fed won a few times under the roof, so that definitely helps his %.
sbengte
G.O.A.T.
How can you put Nadal on the list ahead of Murray, Djokovic, Tommy Haas, Tsonga or even Federer who'eve had real injuries requiring surgeries ?
Nadal is one of the healthiest players on tour. Never had anything serious enough to even need a surgery (please don't cite appendectomy).
sbengte
G.O.A.T.
Ok , someone already said what I wanted to and did a very good job at that.
kramer woodie
Professional
Nadalgaenger
None of your choices qualify. Here's why:
Maureen Connolly-broken shattered leg, age 19.
Karen Krantzcke-dead age 31
Menno Oosting-dead age 35
Michael Westphal-dead age 26
Elena Baltacha-dead age 30
Daniela Klemenschits-dead age 25
Violetta Degtiareva-dead age 23
Christine O'Reilly-dead age 25
Mathieu Montcourt-dead age 24
Andrea Buchanan-dead age 27
Dead means no possibility of any type of come back. Connolly's shattered leg meant no possible comeback though she tried. Also,
Connolly had more achievement in her short career than those your mentioned.
Aloha
NatF
Bionic Poster
Moving away from the fatalities I'd say Kramer's early onset arthritis was a big impairment.
D
Deleted member 688153
Guest
HetTheGreaterer
Banned
Del potro, if he wouldn't been so much injured, I am sure he would have snatched 3 slams each from nadal and djokovic from 2010-2016. He seemed like an ATG rising in 2009
kevaninho
Hall of Fame
kevaninho
Hall of Fame
The ones you mention dead as their age being over mid 20s, and still hardly anyone has heard of them, means there career wasn't affected much by it as they were obviously never that good to start with.
Try at least grand slam winners . number 1 players etc, then make a point about their career being affected.
How do we know these players were ever going to be good?
Chanwan
G.O.A.T.
I think it's mainly due to him having a ****ty record on carpet in the pre Fed express days. Novak's indoor record has been stellar post 2011 but wasn't all that before.
FHtennisman
Professional
That probably is why Novak has a lower %; think Fed's indoor win % may be at a similar % as Novak at age 31 and the subsequent years of competition have enabled Fed to improve his %. It remains to be seen if Novak can do it too.
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