I've only touched a racket maybe 5 times in the last 20 years, too...keep meaning to get back into it...if only for health reasons!

Weird fact: Fed and Nadal COMBINED for a single grand slam win in all of 2014, 2015, & 2016 (Nadal in the 2014 French). That's 1/12.

Then, in 2017 and 2018, they've combined to win 5 straight. 5/5.

Olds on a heater.

The only reason it favored Federer is that he warmed up indoors beforehand and Cilic did not, which Cilic blamed on his slow start. Cilic apparently was given the opportunity to warm up indoors but decided not to. Clearly a mistake.

This is why Fed wins all these GSs. He is quite adaptable and makes the right strategic decisions. That is a skill.

But obviously all the structural things help him. Federer had played 6 matches at Laver, 5 of them at night. Cilic had only played 2 night matches at Laver (quarters and semis), his first 4 rounds were 3 day and 1 night matches at the other courts. So closing the roof makes the conditions much more like what Fed was used to than what Cilic was used to.

But that is how Tennis works. The tournament is designed to help the top seeds do well. Winning an AO as the #1 or #2 seed is easier than winning as the #6 seed. If Cilic can maintain his #3 ranking he'll start to benefit from these things as well.

Must piss you right off that he won it last year as the 17th seed, beating top 10 players along the way.

Well I'm sure he was still playing all his matches on Laver at night. It isn't unique to Fed though, Nadal and Djoker were surely getting the same perks. But it is an advantage over somebody like Cilic who isn't getting those perks.

But still, at no point have I said last year's tournament win wasn't an impressive feat. He beat 4 top-10 seeds, including 3 of them who were very capable of beating him (Kei, Stan, Rafa).

I think it is a stretch to say that tournaments are designed to help the top seeds. Scheduling is done this way for the fans. It turns out people want to see the greatest tennis player of all time on Laver and in prime time and not on show court 1 at 11:00 AM.

I'm not sure which of these two statements is more accurate.

FEDERER GOAT

or

LOL POKERGRADER

Probably a tie

I think you can argue FEDERER is not the GOAT, albeit it's a weak argument.

I don't think are any arguments against "LOL POKERGRADER" though.

Result: LOL POKERGRADER

Steffi GOAT.

Nice discussion. Well I think Federer is a great player(if not the greatest) but I just hate him simply for the fact that he often enough was the final station for German tennis players in a lot of Grand Slams. Haas up 2 sets againt him still lost. At the 2006 AO he beat Haas in 5 in the 1/8 finals and later Kieffer in the semis. Wimbledon 2009 Haas beat Djokovic in the quarters lost to Federer in the semi. **** him.

I admire people who watch 3-5hr 5set games with players they dont root for just because one is a great player. Finals where I thought Federer's opponent wouldnt fight back I would only check the ticker and watch it if was a tight game. I cheered for Nadal at the french open because I didnt want Federer(Serena as well) to win all 4 Grand slams in one year. To be clear: I also dont watch the Classico just because Madrid and Barcelona are great teams and wouldnt bother watching the CL final if there isn't a team I really like or I want to root against.

Would have been awesome if he did win the French though. That period where he got to 10 finals in a row was just insane.

9 years of Grand Slams between Rafa and Fed still blows my mind. Two guys spending a third of my life winning trophies.

So if I understand ATP ranking's correctly, Fed has a really good shot at becoming the oldest #1 ever at the end of February (for about a week). Rafa is defending 300 pts for making the final in Mexico, and Fed is defending almost nothing in Dubai, and is currently just 155 points behind. So Fed wins Dubai OR Nadal doesn't make at least the semi's in Mexico (and various other combos of this), and he's #1. But he'd have to win Indian Wells again if he wants to stay there. Does that seem right?

Dom,

This is so great! It sounds like we are the same age. I played a lot of tennis growing but never organized. I would do very well against the HS singles players from my school and thought I was pretty decent until I actually played in a real tournament. Of course I I was way over my head and I think I lost 0 and 1 in about 30 minutes. I didn’t even have a tennis bag, I came to this tournament with only my racquet in my hand.

Fast forward 30+ years, I’ve continued to play whenever the opportunity presents itself. In fact from May-Sept I play regularly with a guy down the street that has s tennis court. For a while we were playing doubles with his tennis club friends. One of them was the Racquet Sport columnist for the local newspaper and he asked me if I played tennis in college and was surprised when I answered “no”. The single greatest achievement (compliment) in my career.

I remember thinking Patrick Antonious looked legit watching him hit balls. Would you agree?

Anyway, thanks for sharing your awesome story!


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Line steeper than Steffi that then goes horizontal is Seles right?

I'm guessing so - I also assume the other one a bit lower down who is also ahead of Graff is Hingis.

seles didn't win a grand slam match until 15 (born in dez 73, reached SF at first grand slam appearance @ french open 89). so hingis has to be the one that starts at 14 (born in sep 80, first win at AO 95)).

total win-loss of seles @ grand slams is 180-31 (last appearance 2003), hingis is 153-32; all starts according to wikipedia.

watching old footage of graf/seles or anyone else it seems pretty clear they'd get wrecked by serena real bad

just found out seles married a 72yo at 38yo, wat

Dude has the billionz.

She hardly needs the money

Pretty sure the one stopping around 50 is capriati

They might, but it's not "pretty clear", not by a long-shot.

Graf was the best female tennis player I ever saw. When I was in college, we’d sometimes train with female pros like the Maleeva sisters...I once played a set against the sister who at the time was ranked 4th in the world...Manuela I think her name was? I beat her pretty easily 6-2. And I was the no. 5 player on my college team!

Well, I also played a few sets against Graf later that summer and never won more than 3 games. The girl hit the ball harder than me. She was amazing. I tried to pattern my slice backhand after hers lol.

Serena is incredible, but I’d give Steffi a real shot against her. With modern rackets, why not?

Fun times. I need to start playing tennis again.

pretty clear that 2040 #1 ranked female player will wreck Serena too