britbox said:
calitennis127 said:
Busted said:
El Dude said:
I feel like poor Novak is cursed with his greatness from the US Open of 2010 to the AO of 2012. He played at such an incredible level, yet has been quite good since - just not quite as good. We can't expect him to ever get back to that level, just like we can't expect Roger to ever get back to his ultimate peak of 2006, or Rafa in 2010 (although 2013 was close). In other words, we might have to accept the fact that THIS is Novak, and he's a pretty good player!
The inability to sustain that "greatness" is the difference between guys like Fed and Sampras (and Nadal) and guys like Nole - especially in the GOAT conversation. You have to be able to bring it year in and year out for 5, 6, 7 years in a row. So far Nole hasn't been able to do that. He's an excellent player but I wouldn't use the world "great" to describe him. And I'm not shading Nole. I like Nole. I just don't think he's ever going to make it to double-digits in Slam wins.
Well I think the two most obvious inexcusable losses on Djokovic's resume are the US Open finals against Nadal. He blew what should have been two straightforward wins there against an inferior hardcourt player, and that would have his Slam count at 8, with Nadal's only being 11 and completely weighted toward clay. Not to mention - Djokovic should have one or two French Opens by now and has underachieved at that event.
When you look at it like that, Djokovic has underachieved to this point in his career at the Slams. He should be at at least 8 or 9 Slams right now (at least).
Maybe they shouldn't bother playing the matches...and just ask Uncle Cali to award the trophy.
I guess you didn't watch the 2010 US Open from start to finish because Nadal was far and away the dominant player during the entire tournament and played a great final. That tournament was Nadal's pinnacle (outside of clay) as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a Nadal fan by any means, but was left scratching my head after it finished on how Nole was going to beat him going forward. 2011 changed things of course, but how you can regard that loss as inexcusable is in itself inexcusable.
I guess it was you who didn't watch that US Open start to finish and has very little recollection of it.
Nadal looked pitiful in his first two matches. He struggled to hit more than 10 winners against two no-names. After that, he played fairly well against Simon, before going through arguably the weakest draw he has ever faced at a Slam. He played an exhausted Verdasco in the quarters (who came down from 2 sets to 0 against Ferrer) and an exhausted Youzhny in the semis (who won in 5 long sets against Wawrinka). That run was one of the most overrated runs in any sport that I have seen get so hyped up.
Oh, and what Djokovic did to Nadal in 2011 came as absolutely no surprise to me. He just played very poorly in that 2010 US Open final.
