Greatest mens tennis player of all time

Andrade

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Indeed, no one likes Eastern Europeans. Same with Seles on the women side when she started her career before being stabbed by a Steffi Graf fan.

You could easily label Nadal a machine as his points are actually more repetitive than Djoker's. As for popularity, not sure he cares about the Instagram followers really. Oh, and he can be the President of his country if he wants to.

Saying no one likes him is literally calling the whole of Serbia a banana republic.
Yes, all Eastern European players are exactly the same and disliked precisely because they are Eastern European. ND and Lendl are viewed EXACTLY the same as Nastase and Mecir were......
 

Balljy

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Indeed, no one likes Eastern Europeans. Same with Seles on the women side when she started her career before being stabbed by a Steffi Graf fan.

You could easily label Nadal a machine as his points are actually more repetitive than Djoker's. As for popularity, not sure he cares about the Instagram followers really. Oh, and he can be the President of his country if he wants to.

Saying no one likes him is literally calling the whole of Serbia a banana republic.
I'm not sure abut Seles, she was well liked amongst the people I knew and we lost an all-time great (at least of the same standard) that day.. 8 GS's at 19 and a 3-1 record against Graf.

Edit, also half of the crowd at Wimbledon rooted for Lendl at Wimbledon later in his career willing him to win it once.
 
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Boycott

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Federer is my favourite stylistically and who I took most satisfaction winning. Djokovic never really had that effect on me because his matches felt often quite dull and a test of attrition whereby he'd grind his opponents into the dust by playing long rallies and wait for the error. I felt the same watching Murray at his peak although he was a level below. It was impressive for the physical and mental endurance to keep concentrating and not make errors yourself but compared to Federer it lacked the sort of joy of entertaining the crowd. Nadal is a weird one to judge because of how dominant he was on one surface but I think young Nadal was pretty exciting to watch too. However you can't argue that Djokovic's stats speak for themselves now. I didn't think he could top his level of consistency over 2014-15 and yet here we are almost a decade on. Arguing Federer is still the best of the era to me now is like arguing in 2013 that Zinedine Zidane was still the best footballer of the modern era.
 

giggs-beckham

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Federer is my favourite stylistically and who I took most satisfaction winning. Djokovic never really had that effect on me because his matches felt often quite dull and a test of attrition whereby he'd grind his opponents into the dust by playing long rallies and wait for the error. I felt the same watching Murray at his peak although he was a level below. It was impressive for the physical and mental endurance to keep concentrating and not make errors yourself but compared to Federer it lacked the sort of joy of entertaining the crowd. Nadal is a weird one to judge because of how dominant he was on one surface but I think young Nadal was pretty exciting to watch too. However you can't argue that Djokovic's stats speak for themselves now. I didn't think he could top his level of consistency over 2014-15 and yet here we are almost a decade on. Arguing Federer is still the best of the era to me now is like arguing in 2013 that Zinedine Zidane was still the best footballer of the modern era.
So it's consistency over style then for you
 

Salt Bailly

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Ffs is this still parping on? Roger has already received the award and rubbed his gooch against it to validate it. Move on.
 

whitbyviking

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How can this not be Novak?
At their respective bests Roger puts Novak over his knee and skelps his backside, before applying talc, sticking a nappy on him and putting him to bed.

Too much controversy hanging over Nadal to mention him in the same breath as these two I’m afraid.
 

Andrade

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At their respective bests Roger puts Novak over his knee and skelps his backside, before applying talc, sticking a nappy on him and putting him to bed.

Too much controversy hanging over Nadal to mention him in the same breath as these two I’m afraid.
Controversy?
 

DutchSerb

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I know, username checks out.. It's okay to have your preference and even I would agree Federer is probably the most fun player to watch, ever. But claiming he's the GOAT is nonsense to me. Djoko leads in almost every significant stat. H2H (especially Slam finals H2H) and GS wins which IMO counts for more in an individual sport. The peak vs peak convo on here is.. something. People shouldn't act like prime Djokovic is nothing special. That dude was an absolute behemoth.

Also won't take long before Djokovic puts this discussion to bed for good. Grandpa is making these younglings look shaky. Wouldn't be surprised if he sets a GS record that's going to be unbreakable, but that's a whole different discussion.
 

Nani Nana

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Whoever won the game
People hate his personality so try and make up arguments that he isn’t the goat.

The funny thing is, if it wasn’t for his Anti Covid beliefs he’d have 4 more grand slams!
I agree.

This Peak nonsense is ridiculous. Peak Del Potro beat Federer at USO '09, that does not make him a superior player overall.
 

Zen

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People hate his personality so try and make up arguments that he isn’t the goat.

The funny thing is, if it wasn’t for his Anti Covid beliefs he’d have 4 more grand slams!
How do you come to this conclusion?

Austalian 2022 - sure we'll allow this, I guess? But Danlil had his number at the US 21, and Novak can thank Rafa for cracking him for him.
US 2022 - (for his level) he's got a horrendous record here, so hardly nailed on.
Wimbledon 2020 wasn't cancelled due to his anti-vax stance.
And he whacked an official with a ball at the US 2020.
 

DutchSerb

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How do you come to this conclusion?

Austalian 2022 - sure we'll allow this, I guess? But Danlil had his number at the US 21, and Novak can thank Rafa for cracking him for him.
US 2022 - (for his level) he's got a horrendous record here, so hardly nailed on.
Wimbledon 2020 wasn't cancelled due to his anti-vax stance.
And he whacked an official with a ball at the US 2020.
I agree 4 is nonsense, but you need to be consistent mate. If he won't win US Open because of his record there, it's strange you say he'll only win AO because Nadal did him some sort of favor :lol: He has a godly record at AO and he beat Medvedev at AO in 3 sets that same year. He's the undisputed favorite there no matter what.
 

wr8_utd

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I agree 4 is nonsense, but you need to be consistent mate. If he won't win US Open because of his record there, it's strange you say he'll only win AO because Nadal did him some sort of favor :lol: He has a godly record at AO and he beat Medvedev at AO in 3 sets that same year. He's the undisputed favorite there no matter what.
He'd definitely have won the AO but that's about it. He's been strangely below par at the USO and has even lesser Slams there than Rafa.
 

Red Shorts

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In my mind, it's pretty simple of the modern players:

Djokovic the greatest player of all time

Federer the most artistic player of all time ( in my opinion the greatest but incredibly biased opinion).

Nadal making the holy trinity is the greatest sporting competitors I have seen in my life, and will be hard to beat. When these two retire alongside Fed I will struggle to enjoy the game as I have done for 20 years
 

Zen

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I agree 4 is nonsense, but you need to be consistent mate. If he won't win US Open because of his record there, it's strange you say he'll only win AO because Nadal did him some sort of favor :lol: He has a godly record at AO and he beat Medvedev at AO in 3 sets that same year. He's the undisputed favorite there no matter what.
.... what?

I'm not giving Danlil the AO22 with a full field. But I do think his 2022 season goes better if he doesn't blow a 2-0 lead and then the war happens to prevent his preparations and then his US chances, which is clearly 1 of the 4 that poster is giving him.... thus the "favour" Nadal did for him (coming back from a 2-0 deficit). But also, AO22 Danlil is clearly a superior player to AO21, your RU in 3 sets... and would of been coming off the US win, but of course the edge is with Novak, thus why I allowed it.


The Roddick Hewitt era was brilliant. I really wish Nadal had 3-4 years with those two as his primary competition.
I mean, let's totally ignore the fact that he's feasted by being the last (and best) clay specialist with essentially zero clay specialists coming through after him and Coria came through in the early 2000's. He's not winning as many in the 90's or 80's. But you know, let's ignore that one.
 

Bole Top

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nothing to do with discussion, but Gaudio's run to his RG title is quite something given he's widely considered as the worst GS winner in recent history. Canas, Novak, Enquist, Andreev, Hewitt, Nalbandian, Coria... unseeded for the tournament, underdog in every match. Federer got schooled by Kuerten in third round, Roddick by... someone, but he was always a joke on clay.
 

saivet

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I mean, let's totally ignore the fact that he's feasted by being the last (and best) clay specialist with essentially zero clay specialists coming through after him and Coria came through in the early 2000's. He's not winning as many in the 90's or 80's. But you know, let's ignore that one.
Maybe less specialists but a lot of players are and have been very good and comfortable players on clay for some time. If anything, it's grass that has been the become specialised surface for quite a while now.

Look at some of the young players now, they're mainly comfortable on hard and clay courts but grass is where there is a big struggle.
 

ScholesyTheWise

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Nole reminds me somewhat of LeBron or C. Ronaldo,
in the sense that they probably won't be remembered in the same awe that people like Michael Jordan, Messi, or Federer are remembered by.

Even though in some metrics Nole is simply superior to whoever you're gonna compare him to.

He was insanely good at his best. Not the most likable chap to some,
and probably didn't get into the hearts of many like Federer or Nadal did,
but he might very well be the best tennis player of his generation.
His all-around game was just brutal. The fact that Rafa has such iconic defensive highlights in his reel,

probably make some forget how exhausting it might have been to play Nole at times.
seemed like he could return the ball you your side of the court- and deeply, at that- no matter what you threw at him.
 
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Bobski

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Its Djokovic, has every shot and is mentally the toughest ever.

But Federer was just a different experience to watch and I have found myself much less interested in the sport since he retired.
 

Andrade

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24 Novak
22 Rafa
20 Roger

Is this even a debate anymore?
If he wins, will match Court. Who is obviously the greatest player of all time across genders that he will be trying to take the Crown from. Obviously.
 

DutchSerb

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Hehe I was trying to bait, I honestly don't really care anymore. He is for me though based on the numbers, but theres plenty of arguments to make for Rafa as well. Even Federer.
 

Heardy

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Why does there seem to be so much disdain towards Djokovic? I know he did himself no favours during Covid, but he seems to be the Wimbledon villain.

Mia it a British thing, or is he generally just not well liked? Must be frustrating for him to not have the adulation the likes of Federer received.
 

Walter Sobchak

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I think the different surfaces make it interesting to discuss.

Objectively Djok is probably the GOAT of men's tennis given his achievements throughout his career and across all slams.

I'd argue Nadal on clay is the greatest version of any tennis player in history.
 

Samid

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No way one of the actual GOATs (Rafa or Roger) would lose to a 20 year old after being a set up.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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Today’s final had the perfect outcome for me, Alcaraz winning / Djokovic losing in a 5 set classic.

I do wonder if this might actually help Djokovic going into the US Open, the grand slam that he has underachieved at title-wise during his career, and where he surely still has some unfinished business. The fact that there won’t be a frenzy about a possible calendar grand slam anymore, like in 2021, meaning that he can approach the tournament with less pressure and solely view it as a standalone campaign, could benefit him.