GameSetAndMath said:
Kei has now defeated all members of big four at least once. How many active players can claim the same?
By winning this match and the Bronze Medal match at the Olympics against Nadal he even has exactly two wins against each of the big four (and also two wins against Wawrinka). So after Del Potro he is the second player younger than 30 years who achieved this. Otherwise also Wawrinka, Tsonga and Berdych have at least two wins and including retired players Roddick has at least three wins against each big four member.
Additionally Gilles Simon is someone who has at least one win against each of them but I'm not sure if there are any other active players who further did this as for the ones I could possibly think of: Ferrer (Federer), Raonic (Djokovic), Cilic (Djokovic), Monfils (Djokovic), Thiem (Djokovic and Murray), Stepanek (Nadal), Gasquet (Nadal), Haas (Nadal), Youzhny (Federer and Murray), Verdasco (Federer), Dimitrov (Federer and Nadal), Karlovic (Murray and Nadal), Almagro (Federer and Djokovic), Isner (Murray and Nadal), Baghdatis (Djokovic) there is at least one member they haven't defeated yet.
GameSetAndMath said:
I guess this also settles YE #1. There is no more fight in that race.
Yes, if Novak doesn't take the rest of the year off for some reason it's hard to see him losing the No. 1 ranking in 2016 and especially if he wins the US Open it will be very tough for Andy to get to No. 1 at all as if I calculated correctly Novak then would be slightly ahead in points won after Miami and just slightly behind in points won after Roland Garros. With Beijing to Miami usually being Novak's best part of the calendar Andy outperforming him there would be a great surprise.
Also it basically guarantees Novak the ITF Player of the Year award as he has scored more points at the majors (the only ITF events where ATP points are awarded this year) than Andy now, which if Andy would have had a better result than Novak at the US Open could have been interesting even with Novak ending the year as No. 1.