Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Rome ATP 1000, 2018

[Mastoor]

Your adoration for your man (clearly, on this forum there is no other fan matching your openness and passion about any player) creates a bias in your prediction. The prediction is very unlikely to happen: Novak never won Rafa 7 times in a row and there is no indication he will ever do it. There is also only a very small chance (admittedly no zero) that he does it in Roma or RG.

I always get fascinated how often tennis fans are likely to teach lessons even when they don't know basic facts about tennis.

Not only that Novak has won 7 matches against Rafa in a row, he has done it twice and you can easily check that here:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/fedex-head-2-head/novak-djokovic-vs-rafael-nadal/D643/N409

 

[GameSetAndMath]

I am very happy with Nole's performance in Rome. He proved not to be far from his smashing form which we can expect to bring him titles very soon. I read that even uncle Toni is excited about this. I wasn't aware that he was a fellow fan.

Unfortunately, I did not get to see his Rome matches including the big one. But, going by the score line against Rafa, I would definitely say he is going to be back very soon as a contender (but RG may be too early though).

 

[Mastoor]

Unfortunately, I did not get to see his Rome matches including the big one. But, going by the score line against Rafa, I would definitely say he is going to be back very soon as a contender (but RG may be too early though).

Not only Mastoor, but Rafa, Toni and Boris agree with you and they may know tennis a little better than our friend Chris.

RG may be too soon but I wouldn't discard Nole as a contender there giving that his current form seems great, his ability to raise a level a lot withing even a week and his past experience. Grass season, on the other hand, if he doesn't get injured, is for sure.

 

[Moxie]

Not only Mastoor, but Rafa, Toni and Boris agree with you and they may know tennis a little better than our friend Chris.

RG may be too soon but I wouldn't discard Nole as a contender there giving that his current form seems great, his ability to raise a level a lot withing even a week and his past experience. Grass season, on the other hand, if he doesn't get injured, is for sure.

He's definitely looking more like his old self. RG will show us more where he is with his physical and mental endurance, given the longer format. If he doesn't get a tough draw, I see him in the 2nd week.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Novak will certainly be back. I've said this after every loss of his. The tennis world, and these forums in particular, are VERY reactionary to individual matches. Novak will be back. I wouldn't be shocked if he suffers an expected loss at RG, and I wouldn't be shocked if he reaches the final either, but I WOULD be shocked if he fades to irrelevance for the rest of his career.

 

[Moxie]

I think there's only one about around here willing to call him done. He's sure hard to bet on, atm. I agree that RG could go either way for him, though I don't see him winning. It's going to be a test of his current sturdiness, physical and mental, which is still a question. I do think he'll be back, but as to whether at his A game, and how consistently is also yet to be seen.

 

[rafanoy1992]

One thing that would Djokovic return to Top 5 status is that he has the same team (Vajda and the other guy) that helped him reached maximum level in from 2011 to 2015. Sometimes, all you need to return to normalcy is have the same team that helped you become a great player.

 

[Fiero425]

I always get fascinated how often tennis fans are likely to teach lessons even when they don't know basic facts about tennis.

Not only that Novak has won 7 matches against Rafa in a row, he has done it twice and you can easily check that here:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/players/fedex-head-2-head/novak-djokovic-vs-rafael-nadal/D643/N409

Only going by a recollection, but during that 2nd run of 7 matches, Nole wasn't even losing sets to Rafa! He got little credit for doing it since Nadal was in a rut and losing matches to other players under usual circumstances like on clay, with leads, or even with match points! Dropping that USO to Fabio is still making me SMH since Rafa was up 2-0 and preceded to lose the next 3 on HC!

 

[Moxie]

Only going by a recollection, but during that 2nd run of 7 matches, Nole wasn't even losing sets to Rafa! He got little credit for doing it since Nadal was in a rut and losing matches to other players under usual circumstances like on clay, with leads, or even with match points! Dropping that USO to Fabio is still making me SMH since Rafa was up 2-0 and preceded to lose the next 3 on HC!

You do make the point that 2015 was a nadir for Nadal. Exactly about Fabio. SMH. Everyone and his grandmother was beating Nadal in 2015

 

[Fiero425]

You do make the point that 2015 was a nadir for Nadal. Exactly about Fabio. SMH. Everyone and his grandmother was beating Nadal in 2015

It's the reason Nadal shouldn't ever be considered anywhere near "GOAT-dom" seeing as he either breaks down or loses his edge after a great season! His best chance to have a longer successful run was 2010-11 but for Nole outdoing him in all those finals and dominating the tour! His 2013, like '08 gave him similar chances, but he couldn't stay on the court longer than a year and a half; hence him scratchin' to this day to get higher on the cons. weeks at #1's list! o_O

 

[Moxie]

It's the reason Nadal shouldn't ever be considered anywhere near "GOAT-dom" seeing as he either breaks down or loses his edge after a great season! His best chance to have a longer successful run was 2010-11 but for Nole outdoing him in all those finals and dominating the tour! His 2013, like '08 gave him similar chances, but he couldn't stay on the court longer than a year and a half; hence him scratchin' to this day to get higher on the cons. weeks at #1's list! o_O

"Anywhere near GOAT-dom?" I think he is VERY near GOATness. Sampras was the GOAT not that long ago, and Rafa is 2 Majors past him. If you want to hold his injury issues against him, knock yourself out. Another way to look at it is that, despite his injury issues, he's surpassed a lot of records, dominated Roger and held his own against his personal closest rival, Novak.

 

[Fiero425]

"Anywhere near GOAT-dom?" I think he is VERY near GOATness. Sampras was the GOAT not that long ago, and Rafa is 2 Majors past him. If you want to hold his injury issues against him, knock yourself out. Another way to look at it is that, despite his injury issues, he's surpassed a lot of records, dominated Roger and held his own against his personal closest rival, Novak.

Here we go again! I thought the consensus was that Nadal's the "clay GOAT" and nothing more since his career wasn't balanced in the least! I give more credit to Nole who's falling behind Rafa every day wallowing in mediocrity, but has records Nadal will never touch! Sampras won 7 Wimbledons and 5 USO's; again Nadal will never come close to surpassing that no matter how many more titles he acquires in the next couple years! He can go to 20 majors, but if 14 are at the FO, I'm not as impressed as with Roger who's success was spread around with 8+ Wimbl. & 5 USO's! This isn't going to change and people need to get this to sink into their collective skulls! There are different levels of success and Nadal's fallen woefully short with only 7 of his major wins outside of FO so far! :sleep:

 

[Moxie]

Here we go again! I thought the consensus was that Nadal's the "clay GOAT" and nothing more since his career wasn't balanced in the least! I give more credit to Nole who's falling behind Rafa every day wallowing in mediocrity, but has records Nadal will never touch! Sampras won 7 Wimbledons and 5 USO's; again Nadal will never come close to surpassing that no matter how many more titles he acquires in the next couple years! He can go to 20 majors, but if 14 are at the FO, I'm not as impressed as with Roger who's success was spread around with 8+ Wimbl. & 5 USO's! This isn't going to change and people need to get this to sink into their collective skulls! There are different levels of success and Nadal's fallen woefully short with only 7 of his major wins outside of FO so far! :sleep:

I don't understand how balanced you think Sampras' record was w/o a French Open or even a quality run there. I also don't understand how you call Nadal's accomplishments falling "woefully" short. I thought you took the long-view on tennis.

 

[Fiero425]

I don't understand how balanced you think Sampras' record was w/o a French Open or even a quality run there. I also don't understand how you call Nadal's accomplishments falling "woefully" short. I thought you took the long-view on tennis.

Everyone has shortcomings at one or 2 of the majors; Nadal's had minor and major problems at 3! All the top players have a tourney that eludes them like Borg in NY, Sampras in Paris, & Lendl at Wimbledon! They're still ahead of Rafa who's had trouble at 3 of the majors and continues to not have the consistency of any other champion breaking down all too often! Lendl at least survived into the 2nd week of Wimbledon year in and year out! Rafa's record is getting worse! I'm still wondering what his problem could be "down under" since it's early in the season and holding only 1 title? :whistle:

 

[brokenshoelace]

Here we go again! I thought the consensus was that Nadal's the "clay GOAT" and nothing more since his career wasn't balanced in the least! I give more credit to Nole who's falling behind Rafa every day wallowing in mediocrity, but has records Nadal will never touch! Sampras won 7 Wimbledons and 5 USO's; again Nadal will never come close to surpassing that no matter how many more titles he acquires in the next couple years! He can go to 20 majors, but if 14 are at the FO, I'm not as impressed as with Roger who's success was spread around with 8+ Wimbl. & 5 USO's! This isn't going to change and people need to get this to sink into their collective skulls! There are different levels of success and Nadal's fallen woefully short with only 7 of his major wins outside of FO so far! :sleep:

What's Novak's "balanced" record like? How many non hard court slams did he win compared to his hard court slam? I've always found this to be the dumbest argument but people still use it apparently.

Also I really like the "only" 7 major wins outside of the FO part (it's actually 6). Buddy, 7 majors is more than hall of famers have won in their careers. But while you're at it, how many non-Australian Open majors does Novak have? I'll wait... Or you know what, I'll answer, he's got 6. So by your logic: winning the same major 6 times and winning all the other ones 6 times is better than winning one 10 times while winning the other ones 6, which is pretty weird considering 10 > 6.