Change the title and lock the thread

It’s not even a debate anymore

.

Yep it's over forever. Been whole food plant based for over 6 years because the science is clear: eating animal products and processed junk is bad for one's health. Nice to see that the goat is on a similar diet. Prediction: almost all tennis players will be vegan within the next 15 years.

5 years too late but glad everyone ended up seeing the light

While his diet is heavily plant based, the focus is more on being gluten/dairy free. He still eats fish and white meat.

Too bad a Healthy Nadal could not meet Novax in this tournament. 2 guys to meet both going for the record would've been beyond epic.

Rafa still better than Novak.

Time for the thread title change and to lock it up. It's been a fun ride watching these guys compete but the sun is setting on Nadal's career and no one is going to catch Novak for a long time. Crazy to think he should have like two more grand slams at this point too.

a fifth set at Wimbledon away from winning the calendar slam at the age of 36. his age was finally starting to show a little bit today and he still won in straight sets. truly a once in a lifetime type of player.

Vak could get hit by lightning and die + Nadal could comeback and win 2 more slams, and Vak would still be GOAT.

I remember thinking how old Sampras was when he won the US Open in 2002 aged 31. His penultimate slam was Wimbledon aged 28.

Now we have Novak winning 12 slams aged 31+.

Genuine question : are there still Federer fans who believe he's the goat? Not asking Nadal fans because - from experience - they don't seem to show the same level of irrational attachment as Federer's fans

then again:

Absolutely there are.

It's Novak by a (growing) hair over Nadal then a long way to Federer.

Anyone who says the contrary is just an idiot.

Some people say if you want to be the best you've got to beat the best.

Federer's 20 Grand Slam wins, he had to beat Novak or Nadal in 7 of them (35%)

Novak's 24 Grand Slam wins, he had to beat Nadal or Federer in 15 of them. (63%)

Nadal's 22 Grand Slam wins, he had to beat Novak or Federer in 18 of them. (82%)

Stan beat Djokovic or Nadal 4 times in his 3 grand slam wins (133%)

GOAT

So Novak is the GOAT then, because he won 24, glad we got that cleared up.

If that's all you want to look at, then sure.

Shall I rename the thread?

What matters most in tennis is major titles, but there certainly are other stats that matter, and Vak is even farther ahead of his peers in those. Let's take a look at the other things that matter:

2nd tier titles (masters 1000, tour finals, olympics):

Vak: 39 masters+ 6 tour finals = 45
Rafa: 36 masters+ 1 olympic gold = 37
Fed: 28 masters+ 6 tour finals = 34

Interesting to note that Sir Andrew Murray is the only player to have won at least one major, masters, tour finals, and olympic gold in the 21st century.

Weeks at #1:

Vak: 390
Fed: 310
Rafa: 209

Year-end #1:

Vak: 7 (will be 8 soon)
Rafa: 5
Fed: 5

Career Prize Money:

Vak: $175m
Rafa: $134m
Fed: $130m

As you can see, Vak is crushing it in everything else that matters.

There is only one stat I can think of that matters that Vak isn't crushing, at least not yet.

Total professional Titles:

Fed: 105
Vak: 102
Rafa: 100

Cherry-picking head to head matchup+ tournament combinations is not something anyone who knows anything about tennis believes is anywhere near as important as any of the above stats.

However, just for fun, let's look at the H2H combos of the 3 GOATS:

Vak > Fed 27-23
Vak > Rafa 30-29
Rafa > Fed 24-16

So Vak still winning there anyway.

Case closed.

Surely the most important criteria is social media following.

Facebook
Fed: 18M
Rafa: 14M
Vak: 10M

Instagram
Rafa: 20M
Vak: 13.8M
Fed: 12M

Twitter
Rafa: 15.6M
Fed 12.7M
Vak: 9.2M

TOTALS
Rafa: 49.6M
Fed: 42.7M
Vak: 33.0M

And Rafa takes the gold medal!

Nadal actually has the highest winning percentage in these matches, by a pretty large margin.

Nadal 53-42
Novak 57-52
Fed 39-51

This is of course because he played Fed so many times on clay.