The fact that this is your first post ITT since Vak won the French Open two years ago is kind of sad, especially since Vak is 31 and Fed is 37 in a few weeks. I'll go ahead and root for your GOAT in the final since it's been a rough stretch.

He could lose 6-0, 6-0,6-0

Still goat

2011 Novak Djokovic is the greatest tennis player who ever lived

The fact that hes big time back in summer 18 is just gravy

It will be interesting if Djokovic can eclipse his previous record high 2016 Elo number. It will probably take multiple wins over Nadal or Federer along with a decent win streak, which will get the Fed/Djok GOAT flames high.

When it's all said and done with these guys, I'm happy to let the slam records speak for themselves. They all played in pretty much the same era, with Nadal almost certainly playing through the toughest era of the 3 as his entire career had either peak Fed or peak Novak in it.

GOAT is about your career, not about who played the best on some small period of time. The GOAT might be Marat Safin or Michael Stich or Martin Del Potro if you look at too small a frame of time.

Fed winning 3 more majors at age 35/36 definitely put a stamp on things, and it will take similar longevity from either of Rafa/Novak to reach or exceed 20. He couldn't beat Rafa on clay, and he couldn't beat peak Novak (when he wasn't at his peak himself). All 3 of these guys at their peaks were pretty much unbeatable, and whenever they met each other during peaks that overlapped, the matches were epic.

I don't care about stats, h2h records, or # of slams

in terms of skill/talent and raising the level of tennis Federer hands down GÖAT ÖAT ainec. like the title says...

Peak Elo provides fodder for GOAT conversation. As some apparently mistake it for a momentary measure, in fact it is built up over many matches over a prolonged period of time and reflects one's dominance over others, with a greater weighting dominating good players.

What a well said argument-- I don't care about wins, losses, stats, historic data, anything; all I care about is that MY FAVORITE is the best and that's all there is to it.

2p2 at its finest.

he's my favourite for a reason. anyone with any tennis IQ knows he's more talented than Vak/Rafa

I'm sure I could mop the floor with you

you're the Bud Collins of 2+2. Year of Dimitrov... give me a break

Another quality well structured argument-- fed is your favorite for a reason (unstated), and even though Raja has losing records head to head vs Novak and vs Rafa, EVERYONE WITH TENNIS IQ KNOWS HE'S MORE TALENTED!

Makes perfect sense-- losing record vs both, obviously also more talented than both. Why even have the discussion? He's clearly the best player even though more often than not he loses to these two.

Unrelated: you could mop the floor with me how?

All of this is rhetorical-- I don't care what you think.

FWIW: I think Fed is the career GOAT, but mainly based on longevity arguments. Peak Novak in 2011 is the in-the-moment-GOAT. Non-clay Rafa is just a run of the mill top tier player, but clay-Rafa is the clay GOAT (but who cares cause clay sucks).

I just like I at stats , even more so when it’s not a team sports.
The number of titles here ( rings) are way more important to determine goat status .

1 year does not make goat talk, hell mind as well take best 2 weeks to determine goat status than...

Being able to win title slams throughout his carreer and still now , has old has Federer vs young and old lions in difficult hot weather is just unheard of ...

Federer easiest goat status in any sport ...

This is how you know someone isn't thinking it through-- they take what's obviously a debatable issue and say "it's clearly THIS GUY and it's silly there's a discussion at all."

I mean if you like stats, then please discuss how it's obvious Fed is the GOAT, but he has losing records head to head vs the other two guys in the discussion... I'm interested in those stats.


And again, I think Fed is the greatest. But I'm not stupid. There's argument for other options.

https://twitter.com/espnstatsinfo/st...521456143?s=21

Pretty more amazing that Djokovic has the opportunity to beat Federer to have a better score vs Federer...
Federer his old and still can compete at this level ?

Why not start the analysis since 2007 instead of 2011 ?

So Vak will need another peak of dominance pre-2021 and >8 slams post-2021 while still playing and winning until 2030 to be considered for GOAT.

Vak owning Fed’s soul in 2011 US Open trumps everything else imo

Rafa also beats Novak.

You miss dat Wimbledon hot sh*t? Cause no, he did not.

Any way you cut it, Djokovic, Rafa, and fed are the three best to ever play the game. Even if we ended the timeline here without djok having 15 slams, I think it’s clear he’s better than Sampras was.

Bitterer brought out yet again by the GOAT.

Novak maintains his winning head to head record vs Fed, and is the only person to win each of the nine M1000 trophies.

He also has a winning record vs Nadal, and the sample size of each is large.

The Djokovic nut-huggers have been in hiding most of the year, but they have reason to be out and about now.

Curious to see how the US Open goes.

At age 29 Federer had a 13-6 record against Djokovic.

So this head to head stuff is kind of nonsense. Federer beat up the Djovokic before Djokociv peaked, and Federer has played forever after his own peak, during which he's still been such a strong player that he's reached a round with Djokovic 27 more time and beaten him 9 times. You can't really take anything meaningful from these results.

Also, the real career record is 23-22. Djokovic is credited with a win for one match that didn't get played in 2014. So he beats a 37 year old Federer (who still makes finals and is ranked #2 in the world) to take the career lead. Clearly reaching the finals as a 37 year old should be held against Federer.

Federer has set the bar so high. There are all these articles about how bad he played and how he should retire, when he just reached the finals and is still easily the 3rd best active player.

Vak goat same as it ever was

+1