Rafa legacy

quote:

---

Say he wins one more French open. Is he better than Federer all-time? He has the head to head but I can see an argument for so many of his titles being on clay.

---

If he wins one more than Roger, then he has the best argument for greatest of all-time. He still has that H2H advantage against Roger too (although Fed has shrunk down the difference).

I agree with you. Just curious the general consensus.

I think the floor is 21.

If he wins another French and picks off an Australian or another grand slam I don’t see how he isn’t known as the GOAT.

The media clearly backs Fed so it will be an uphill battle there but shite.

He owns the head to head and has beaten him in finals on 3 different surfaces. At this point the debate will be between Rafa and Novak moving forward. Federer for all his dominance got a lot of his before these two really took off. Novak can at least say he's beaten Rafa at the French.

quote:

---

Rafa would need some things to go right to win anywhere but Roland Garos in my opinion at his age

---

I think Rafa *probably* won't win another non-RG slam, but let's not forget that he won the US Open in 2019, and in pretty convincing fashion until the final, which was a very close -- and great -- match.

He could definitely steal one more aussie or another US Open. I think it's unlikely that he gets another Wimby.

On the RG front, I think one more is more likely than two more. There is certainly a decent chance he gets another in 2021 considering it is like focking 7 months away and how dominant he was this year at RG.

Seriously, he was ridiculously dominant at this tournament this year. I may go through and do the game differential analysis. This is probably his third most dominant RG ever, which at age 34 is insane.

So with the disclaimer that I'm a giant rafa homer. Here is my main argument for Rafa being the GOAT. I overlayed all three career GS results from Wikipedia. Rafa played and won GS during both of the other two peaks, while Roger and Novak either didn't have to compete with the others prime or just didn't get results in that player's prime.

Imo that overlay strengthens the argument for Federer. He was dominant on 3 surfaces with only the French being his Achilles because Rafa is so good there.

Federer
6 Aussie
1 French
8 Wimbeldon
5 US

Rafa
1 Aussie
13 French
2 Wimbeldon
4 US

Djokovic
8 Aussie
1 French
5 Wimbledon
3 US

Rafa is great but without the French would we really be talking about him as the goat? Imo the best all time should be able to be somewhat dominate on all surfaces. Rafa clearly isn't. In the end I think it ends
Federer
Djokovic
Rafa

That’s kind of a weird cherry picked stat.

Fed is being penalized for being the 2nd greatest clay court player in his era, while Rafa gets the benefit of the doubt for not being the 2nd greatest grass/hard court tennis player of his era. The H2H record would look a lot different if the matches on playing surfaces were flipped.

I’ll put it like this as far as overall ranking....

Rafa puts everything into every single shot every match. The physical toll his body has taken over the years and to end up being involved in this discussion is astonishing...


Fed just makes things look so easy the way he plays. Doesn’t get to emotional during matches and just glides around the court making shot after shot.


Novak is just a physical freak that can make shots and recover from bad shots like nobody I have ever seen. But his temper and emotions are his setbacks. I give him credit yesterday for at least fighting in the third set when he knew he was no match for Rafa yesterday......


Having said this I’m going
Fed
Rafa
Novak....