ATP Tennis/Non-India Davis Cup

[PKBasu]

By the metrics that prasen9 wants to use, Vijay Singh would be one of the greats of golf, given that he won so many tournaments and dominated the world rankings for 2-3 years, and was a close second to Tiger for perhaps another 5-6. But he won just 3 majors, so he will be a minor name in the whole history of golf -- not one of the all-time greats.

The pinnacle of the sport -- the tournaments for which the players play all the other matches (which are "preparatory" or "tune-up" tournaments for the big ones) are the Slams. The ATP (being ATP) pays a lot of attention to the head-to-head numbers for players, because every tournament is very important to the ATP (since they sponsor those, and don't actually sponsor the Slams). The pseudo-importance of the Masters is of a piece with that ATP logic. The only other tournament that is perhaps the next most important is the year-end ATP championship (although its importance has been somewhat diminished ever since it moved to a 3-set format).

There is a huge difference between 5-setters at the Slams, and playing little best-of-three matches at all the other tournaments.

When it comes to Slams, the all-time leader for titles, consecutive semifinals and consecutive quarter-finals is Federer by a country mile. He is easily the best of his generation, and the greatest of all time.

Nadal, prasen9's contender, has never even won the year-end ATP championship. How can he be the greatest of his generation without ever winning the year-end championship? Nadal is the greatest clay-court player of all time, who managed to squeeze out a title or two at the other Slams at the peak of his game. But GOAT he ain't, outside clay.

The only other contenders for GOAT are Rosewall (23 Slam titles if you include the Pro Slams before the Open era) and Laver (19 by the same metric). But Rosewall never won Wimbledon.

[Sin Hombre]

How can someone be .. without ... is a slippery slope.

How can Roger Federer be the greatest of his generation despite having a negative h2h against his main 2 rivals?

How can Roger Federer be the greatest of his generation without winning an Olympics?

[Atithee]

How can this discussion continue without any definitive criteria?

[Rajiv]

BEN MCLACHLAN New Zealand born and bred , joins a growing list of Paratroopers who have taken up to play under the Japanese flag, Taro Daniel , Akira Santillan are others names which come to mind.

It is obvious the Japanese Federation is spending and investing immensely in Tennis , and these players due to some some ancestral Japanese connection get on board to derive the support from the Japanese system

The effort the JTA seems to be putting in is so huge and can be seen at ongoing HongKong Futures , where there are atleast 20 Japanese players some as young as 17 playing Qualifying & Main Draw , And an equal high number of players are playing else where in the world at the moment playing GS, Challengers , and Futures.

We have spend years ruing this fact about AITA's apathy and they never seem to come up with even a fraction of above effort.

[PKBasu]

Despite the seemingly one-sided scoreline, the Murray-Brown match was wonderful to watch -- a great demonstration of all that is enthralling about grass-court tennis. Murray looks in ominous form, as does Nadal. This is going to be a spectacular Wimbledon.

[PKBasu]

Hats off to Gilles Muller, to have beaten Nadal in that marathon match on Court 1. I must say Muller looked the better grass player from start to finish: far better serve, superior volley, lovely touch at the net, effective drop shots. Nadal had his incredible retrieving/chasing ability and superb volleying, plus terrific ability to fight under pressure. An absolutely spectacular match!

[PKBasu]

Federer yet to drop a set, while Murray, Djoker, Nadal and Stan all fall before the SF.

[prasen9]

Seems like this will be Federer's year although the hard court season will be more competitive. On grass, he is the clear favorite.

[Saniapower]

One day this man will stop playing tennis and the game will never be the same again.

[PKBasu]

Seems like this will be Federer's year although the hard court season will be more competitive. On grass, he is the clear favorite.

Interesting!! He won the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami Masters on hardcourts of course!

[PKBasu]

One day this man will stop playing tennis and the game will never be the same again.

On the strength of his form this year -- and the wonderful way he has husbanded his talents and stamina -- that day still seems some time away.

[prasen9]

Seems like this will be Federer's year although the hard court season will be more competitive. On grass, he is the clear favorite.

Interesting!! He won the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami Masters on hardcourts of course!

I expect if you calculate the % of sets won on hardcourts vs grass, his record on grass would be much better than on hardcourts. This is going along with my impression of his career. On grass, he has a much better record than elsewhere. Hence the statement. My expectation is that he will win Wimbledon more easily than he will in the USO. I would put the chances of winning to be more at Wimbledon given his past record and given that grass-and clay are more extreme surfaces. People who win GSs on grass courts win for many years (Federer, Sampras, Williams sisters) and people who win on clay courts do similarly (Nadal) and eke out a win or two at max on the other surface. On the other hand, on hard courts we have seen a more level playing field and people with all sorts of skills win.

Sampras and Federer won 7 Wimbledons each but they did not win as many USOpens or Australians. A similar trend is there for Venus, and especially Navratilova. That is because hard courts give clay-courters and grass-courters both a chance.

[prasen9]

I just checked. At the Australian, Federer lost 7 sets. At Wimbledon, I think it is 0. The hard-court season will certainly be more competitive.

On another note, if you look at the players who have the most effective first serves, they are Karlovic, Raonic, Sam Querrey, Isner, Giles Muller, Roger Federer, Thomas Berdych, Feliciano Lopez, Cilic, Murray, Almagro. If you look at aces/match in the last year, they are Isner, Karlovic, Kyrgios, Raonic, Muller, Querrey, Anderson, Federer, Lopez, Cilic. This is almost a who's-who of people who did well at Wimbledon this year with some exceptions. Here is the list of quarter-finalists. Murray, Querrey, Cilic, Muller, Raonic, Berdych, Federer, Djokovic. Basically, unless you have a top-10 serve, you need to be a Djokovic to have a chance at Wimbledon.

This huge advantage that big servers get at Wimbledon is what makes the game dull for me. If you have a huge serve, you almost get into the match one set up unless it is against another huge server. If they can figure out a way to counter the effect of huge serves while paying dividends to volleyers, that would be great. I don't especially enjoy watching huge serves. (I understand there are others who do.)

Maybe the Wimbledon seeding committee should use a formula that uses average serve speed as a significant component of the factors taken into account while ranking. Honestly, it would do a better job than ATP rankings.

[prasen9]

Hope this will be an epic final. Federer's dominance at 35 is unprecedented --- at least in the Open Era. Good luck to him. Generally, I mildly support the underdog, when I do not have a favorite player in the final. I am a mild Nadal, Djokovic fan because I want the game to be competitive and the titles distributed. If one person wins all the time, the game becomes uninteresting (to me), unless an Indian player is playing. So, good luck to Cilic. Cilic also has a very good serve even though it is weaker than Federer's. So, may be he has a chance. Cilic ran Federer close in the last few years, but, those may have been because Federer was fatigued. We will know today. But, at the end, I hope tennis is the winner.

[PKBasu]

Slam #19 and Wimbledon singles title #8 done and dusted.

And without dropping a set, when he is just 23 days short of turning 36!