12 slams from one event. Sampras won 14 in total ffs and that was ridiculous before Fedal arrived.
Tennis 2019
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As long as he stays healthy and keeps improving he will be the French Open champ one day. Has the game for sure.
It's been over 10 years, crazy to think how dominant those 2 are.
Good old Laver. Looking a bit frail today....
Twelve times win in same tournament.
Raf is the GOAT.
Raf is the GOAT.
what he had left in himself, Thiem gave in first hour and half and that was it. he can be proud of himself today, Nadal is just invincible here.
Phenomenal players. These two are worthy of the name legends.
Oh don’t start that again. There’s a thread for GOAT and shit. Keep it in there.
Go on Dominic. Should be proud. Nadal too good and Dom probably exhausted.
He's certainly the king of clay. When he wins the most slams he will be the goat. Same with Djokovic.
Nice from the crowd there.
Shot of the match?
Just an incredible match. To beat a clay courter like Thiem 3,1 and 1 is unbelievable.
One final and one Slam this year. Super year!
One final and one Slam this year. Super year!
I cannot stress how insane it is to think we could have three players on 20 or more slams in the next few years. I'm 37 and when I was young, even one player getting there seemed far-fetched. As someone jokingly said on the Wimbledon coverage last year, there are three once in a generation players all racing through the slams at broadly the same time. And they all play different styles of tennis, which makes it all the more interesting.
Yes this. Incredible to think.
When Sampras won his last, I thought we might never see that bettered and then along come these three players. It's mad.
I don’t know how much their rivalry spurs them on towards higher heights and improving their respective games but it’s hard to think either of these three would not have been ultra-dominant over the entire field if they didn’t have to contend with the other two (almost like how Fed dominated prior to Rafa’s arrival on the scene).
Djokovice will get there with Rafa and Federer out of the picture which will cast doubt over his GOAT status.
On a scale of 1 - 10, where was Rafa on the day Soderling beat him?
take it to the other thread.
He's a fierce competitor but like most of his peers the joy is in winning and not necessarily beating the other player.
It really was the perfect combination of Rafa feeling his knee and the perfect weather conditions for a player like Soderling to beat Rafa. It rarely happens but we've seen before that the cold damp conditions are the only times where Rafa is vulnerable here. The rain break really saved Rafa vs Diego last year.
What about the Djokovic loss? Can't remember now but was it an injured Nadal combined with amazing Djokovic?
Essentially to beat Nadal in a final at RG, you need to be fresh, playing at your best, hope Nadal has an off day and the conditions are favorable.
That was Nadal at his worst year. He just came back from injury his forehand looked weak and his serve didn’t exist. He was basically waiting for players to make errors rather than batter them with his forehand.
He didn’t win a clay court title that year until July. Where he won Hamburg because his form was so dreadful he entered tournaments he wouldn’t dream of entering usually. He got battered by Murray on clay for the first time in a final. He lost his streak of winning first two sets and never losing in a slam to Fognini of all people.
It was like watching Djokovic when he returned from injury early last year. He looked weak and his forehand was pathetic.
Nadal may not be as talented as Federer, may not look as classy as Fed but this guy has inspired me to keep working, has taught me to never quit, to keep at it no matter what...and for that reason he'll always be the GOAT for me
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Moya deserves the big credit though. Don’t think Nadal would have won any more slams with Toni. Moya has helped him a lot since arriving in 2017.
All right. Perhaps if I said Federer you wouldn't tell me to take it somewhere else.
That year was a complete write off. It was the worst I've ever seen Rafa play since 2005 and I think pretty much everyone expected Novak to win comfortably.
Being fit and fresh obviously matters but I think your best chance is to wait for a rainy day.
All right. Perhaps if I said Federer you wouldn't tell me to take it somewhere else.
No, you'd still have to take it elsewhere.
why so serious?
Because this thread or previous iterations tend to devolve into shitshow whenever someone started that discussion.why so serious?
Yep, his results outside of Roland Garros have been quite impressive:
AO17: F
Wim17: R4
USO17: W
AO18: QF (retired)
Wim18: SF
USO18: SF (retired)
AO19: F
At AO17 and Wim18 he could have won those tournaments with a bit of luck.
I had to ask about '09 but I do remember '15, Rafa was a zombie that day. Soderling has the distinction of being the only man to do it under reasonable (subject to more information about that knee) circumstances view.
Edit -https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rafaelnadal/5580345/Wimbledon-2009-Defending-champion-Rafael-Nadal-pulls-out-because-of-injury.html
Rafa's never lost under reasonable circumstances at Roland Garros.
For me, even if he finishes a Slam or two below both he'll be GOAT. All Masters, consistency across Slams and holding 4 Slams together combined with not stat padding vs Roddick/Hewitt etc will go in his favor. Anyway, this is a debate for another thread.
Yup. He had issues and he pulled of of Wimbledon. Rafa beat Sod the next year at RG in straight sets.
The fact that Rafa has never even played a 5 set final here is just absolutely unreal.
I can't think of too many players who have competed too well. Puerta had 3 set points in 05 to take it to a 5th set, Roger would give him some trouble but nothing major. Isner and Diego (pre rain) are among his biggest tests here and ofcourse the matches against Novak around 11-13.
Tend to agree, but most people will base it on slam wins rather than all the variable factors which should be considered.
True, can be discussed after all 3 are retired.
Still a bit surreal that we've just seen Rafa win #18 at 33. With all his injuries, missing 8 Slams, 3 big injuries and absolutely no one giving him a chance of playing beyond 30, it's amazing that he's still going deep in every single Slam he plays, across all surfaces.
Rafa confirms he won't play any warmup before Wimbledon.
Today was just the 7th set he has lost in 12 finals. Three from Federer, 2 from Novak and one of each from Puerta (whom I've never heard of before today) and Thiem.
I'm still slightly surprised he doesn't skip grass altogether. I always think he's one long match on the surface away from doing himself a mischief.