NatF
Bionic Poster
Yeah, 99 he was never going to do much probably yet, even if he took out Becker, but 2000 and 2001 he should have done way better and could have been a real contender, maybe even for the title both years.
I think his reputation would be a bit better today too if he had a few more good Wimbledons, especialy if he got a 2nd title somewhere. There is even a very outside shot of that coming in 2004 since he played a bad game serving for the 4th set vs Federer. OK he probably still loses to Federer, and even if he beats him there is a good chance he loses to Roddick in the final, but was atleast a chance that year. 2005 no chance of beating Federer, and 2009 he was definitely not beating Roddick, Murray, Federer all in a row at that stage of his career, even if he won that amazing Roddick match.
I think he overplayed in 2001, played back to back tournaments beforehand. But yeah it's a shame, he was one of the best players in grass at the time and it would have added to his legacy to have a couple of deep runs then.
He beat Del Potro in 2009 as well so it was a really heavy draw, just making the final would have been like a third slam lol - 4th maybe if you look at his AO 05 draw