OT: Djokovic one match away from Calendar Grand Slam

[Johnny Firpo]

Biggest match of his career? Djokovic vs Nadal has played some bonker barnstormers.

I mean all three have “biggest” type matches lol.

This was absolutely the most important match of Djokovic's career. His only chance at a CYGS, and with it, he could have had something the others didn't. Even more importantly, he choked badly, which is something no one thought he would do in this one.

You’re talking and many others here that don’t know squat speak as if this is Prime Djokovic.

You want choke? Fed way back in 08. Back to back defending champ loses to 20 yr old Djokovic.

But people say nah not his prime. What....

Or what about the 1/17 break point conversion?

What about a 17 yr old beating him when he was world number one first go?

After djokovic’s two best seasons Murray was world number one and Fed has best post prime season in 17.

Go back and forth all you want the results are inarguable. I mean seriously I repeat this is tennis.

Or what about Fed’s best season his losses too? You guessed it pre prime young players not even allowed to drink alcohol in the states (Nadal/Murray).

It’s as if people don’t know Fed has known to choke. Choke isn’t a great word to use for the best tennis players in the world.

I mean Safin was a headcase but on his day could beat anyone seeded pretty comfortably when entering above 20 and beyond. No joke he’d just rock up randomly and smoke a 4 set win over a way higher ranked player no dramas.

Meds the only one ever to beat the world number 1,2,3 in an ATP Finals Title. I repeat the only one ever.

Please go back to watching basketball.

None of your points make any sense in regarding why this wasn't the most important match of his career. What does Federer or Nadal have to do with this match? Of course it was the biggest match of Djokovic's career, and you know that it was, and he knows it was too, regardless of what he'll say about it in an attempt to get over it. It's natural, natural for him, and natural for you as a fan. And yes, it was a huge choke, not because Medvedev isn't a great player, but because Djokovic played absolutely terrible, and was visibly shaken. And btw, Medvedev was nowhere near his best either, other than his serving.

[DCasey91]

This was absolutely the most important match of Djokovic's career. His only chance at a CYGS, and with it, he could have had something the others didn't. Even more importantly, he choked badly, which is something no one thought he would do in this one.

You’re talking and many others here that don’t know squat speak as if this is Prime Djokovic.

You want choke? Fed way back in 08. Back to back defending champ loses to 20 yr old Djokovic.

But people say nah not his prime. What....

Or what about the 1/17 break point conversion?

What about a 17 yr old beating him when he was world number one first go?

After djokovic’s two best seasons Murray was world number one and Fed has best post prime season in 17.

Go back and forth all you want the results are inarguable. I mean seriously I repeat this is tennis.

Or what about Fed’s best season his losses too? You guessed it pre prime young players not even allowed to drink alcohol in the states (Nadal/Murray).

It’s as if people don’t know Fed has known to choke. Choke isn’t a great word to use for the best tennis players in the world.

I mean Safin was a headcase but on his day could beat anyone seeded pretty comfortably when entering above 20 and beyond. No joke he’d just rock up randomly and smoke a 4 set win over a way higher ranked player no dramas.

Meds the only one ever to beat the world number 1,2,3 in an ATP Finals Title. I repeat the only one ever.

Please go back to watching basketball.

None of your points make any sense in regarding why this wasn't the most important match of his career. What does Federer or Nadal have to do with this match? Of course it was the biggest match of Djokovic's career, and you know that it was, and he knows it was too, regardless of what he'll say about it in an attempt to get over it. It's natural, natural for him, and natural for you as a fan. And yes, it was a huge choke, not because Medvedev isn't a great player, but because Djokovic played absolutely terrible, and was visibly shaken. And btw, Medvedev was nowhere near his best either, other than his serving.

Ah yes sensationalism and media narratives at its finest.

If that’s what you believe all the more power to you I guess.

It’s not like the Nadal/Fed/Murray battles weren’t the biggest matches of his career.

And it’s not like a 34 yr old Fed or Nadal ever played terribly too...... oh yeah Nadal gets a pass and Federer certainly does to the point of true cognitive dissonance. Whether it’d be Prime, Post Prime or Pre prime or whatever stage in his career.

Oh he was young
Oh he was old
Oh he wasn’t playing his best

With Djokovic? Haha man he choked. He’s 34? Yeah he’s still in his prime he choked to a basic player as they say.

This is called cognitive dissonance look it up. If you don’t know what a dictionary is grab a thesaurus, look up the word dictionary and go from there lol.

There is zero point having this discussion have a good one.

[wco81]

It’s pretty cool to see Murrays 2016 ranked so highly on the ratings scale.... told you Djokovic went up against the gauntlet more times. Duh

I dunno casuals who follow basketball think they know about tennis. Bandwagon

Told you it’s sensationalism at it’s finest.

Med basic? Well then Roddick should teach 3 yr olds how to scribble lmao.

You really invested.

[DCasey91]

Did you know that Djokovic and not Nadal is the first man to reach the QF or higher in 10 consecutive years at RG. Pretty cool

[FinnTheHuman]

Did you know that Djokovic and not Nadal is the first man to reach the QF or higher in 10 consecutive years at RG. Pretty cool

Bruh, chill out, I love Djoko too, but you're really spamming it up in here. It's unhealthy to get this riled up, you have literally 3x more comments in this thread than anybody else.

[Johnny Firpo]

You’re talking and many others here that don’t know squat speak as if this is Prime Djokovic.

You want choke? Fed way back in 08. Back to back defending champ loses to 20 yr old Djokovic.

But people say nah not his prime. What....

Or what about the 1/17 break point conversion?

What about a 17 yr old beating him when he was world number one first go?

After djokovic’s two best seasons Murray was world number one and Fed has best post prime season in 17.

Go back and forth all you want the results are inarguable. I mean seriously I repeat this is tennis.

Or what about Fed’s best season his losses too? You guessed it pre prime young players not even allowed to drink alcohol in the states (Nadal/Murray).

It’s as if people don’t know Fed has known to choke. Choke isn’t a great word to use for the best tennis players in the world.

I mean Safin was a headcase but on his day could beat anyone seeded pretty comfortably when entering above 20 and beyond. No joke he’d just rock up randomly and smoke a 4 set win over a way higher ranked player no dramas.

Meds the only one ever to beat the world number 1,2,3 in an ATP Finals Title. I repeat the only one ever.

Please go back to watching basketball.

None of your points make any sense in regarding why this wasn't the most important match of his career. What does Federer or Nadal have to do with this match? Of course it was the biggest match of Djokovic's career, and you know that it was, and he knows it was too, regardless of what he'll say about it in an attempt to get over it. It's natural, natural for him, and natural for you as a fan. And yes, it was a huge choke, not because Medvedev isn't a great player, but because Djokovic played absolutely terrible, and was visibly shaken. And btw, Medvedev was nowhere near his best either, other than his serving.

Ah yes sensationalism and media narratives at its finest.

If that’s what you believe all the more power to you I guess.

It’s not like the Nadal/Fed/Murray battles weren’t the biggest matches of his career.

And it’s not like a 34 yr old Fed or Nadal ever played terribly too...... oh yeah Nadal gets a pass and Federer certainly does to the point of true cognitive dissonance. Whether it’d be Prime, Post Prime or Pre prime or whatever stage in his career.

Oh he was young
Oh he was old
Oh he wasn’t playing his best

With Djokovic? Haha man he choked. He’s 34? Yeah he’s still in his prime he choked to a basic player as they say.

This is called cognitive dissonance look it up. If you don’t know what a dictionary is grab a thesaurus, look up the word dictionary and go from there lol.

There is zero point having this discussion have a good one.

It's amazingly ironic that you are talking about cognitive dissonance while demonstrating it. You clearly are still hurt, I hope you can get over it as soon as possible, and I'm writing this without any malice or bad intent, I know exactly what it feels like.

[Bum Adebayo]

Look, I've no issue in admitting Djokovic is the best player we've ever seen in the Open Era. The problem is that Big3 GOAThood is a marketing scam, we are suddenly forgetting what Laver did. Big3 have been playing catchup with Laver the whole time, he achieved CYGS multiple times, which is the most important and prestigious achievement, come back to me when they win CYGS even just 1 time.
I mean, Djokovic hasn't even won the most prestigious tournament, which is Olympics, this doesn't mean he is not better than Federer and Nadal, it just means he cannot be GOAT, his resume has serious cracks that are masked only because people suddenly forgot that Laver exists.

TLDR: DjokovicWillNeverBeGOAT

[ThePersianFreak]

Why cant people appreciate greatness of one player without trashing other GOATs of the game?
Tennis is an individual sport, but it's very hard to campare players because of different surfaces (And how many tournaments are on each surface).
For example Nadal has GOAT tier resume, but to me he's not on Djok and Fed level because he simply wasn't dominant enough on other surfaces. He never was No1 for 2-3 straight years and his results are skwed because he was just untouchable on Clay. It's not a knock on his resume that most of his titles are on Clay, it's just that TO ME when players are this close, these type of things seperate them.
I currently have either Djok or Fed as GOATs based on my mood and Nadal a very close third. IF Nadal and Djok can win a couple more Slams then it'll change for me. But at the same time i can appreciate all these 3 legendary sportsmans.

[DCasey91]

Did you know that Djokovic and not Nadal is the first man to reach the QF or higher in 10 consecutive years at RG. Pretty cool

Bruh, chill out, I love Djoko too, but you're really spamming it up in here. It's unhealthy to get this riled up, you have literally 3x more comments in this thread than anybody else.

Boredom mostly lol.

[Anti Chalmers]

Sorry guys, I don’t follow tennis but what is this the equivalent of in basketball?

[FinnTheHuman]

Sorry guys, I don’t follow tennis but what is this the equivalent of in basketball?

Grand Slams are 4 tournaments in a year that are the 4 most important and prestigious tournaments in the year, matches are played as best of 5 as opposed to other tournaments best of 3, winning a grand slam gets you 2000 points while other tournaments get you 1000 points or less etc.

Winning a calendar GS would probably mean having a guaranteed top 5 individual season of all time, and arguably top 1, because only 2 guys did this ever, and the last time it happened was 50 years ago. So it would be like Jordan's 91-92 season, or Shaq's 99-00 season or smth, I guess that's the closest equivalent.

[DCasey91]

Yeah but not prime age too

[gp2015]

Look, I've no issue in admitting Djokovic is the best player we've ever seen in the Open Era. The problem is that Big3 GOAThood is a marketing scam, we are suddenly forgetting what Laver did. Big3 have been playing catchup with Laver the whole time, he achieved CYGS multiple times, which is the most important and prestigious achievement, come back to me when they win CYGS even just 1 time.
I mean, Djokovic hasn't even won the most prestigious tournament, which is Olympics, this doesn't mean he is not better than Federer and Nadal, it just means he cannot be GOAT, his resume has serious cracks that are masked only because people suddenly forgot that Laver exists.

TLDR: DjokovicWillNeverBeGOAT

Olympics is not the most prestigious tournament of the year. Many players don't even play or take it that seriously and you can tell by looking at the winners list.

It's a nice accomplishment but I'm sure most players would rather win one of the actual Grand Slams.

[Bum Adebayo]

Look, I've no issue in admitting Djokovic is the best player we've ever seen in the Open Era. The problem is that Big3 GOAThood is a marketing scam, we are suddenly forgetting what Laver did. Big3 have been playing catchup with Laver the whole time, he achieved CYGS multiple times, which is the most important and prestigious achievement, come back to me when they win CYGS even just 1 time.
I mean, Djokovic hasn't even won the most prestigious tournament, which is Olympics, this doesn't mean he is not better than Federer and Nadal, it just means he cannot be GOAT, his resume has serious cracks that are masked only because people suddenly forgot that Laver exists.

TLDR: DjokovicWillNeverBeGOAT

Olympics is not the most prestigious tournament of the year. Many players don't even play or take it that seriously and you can tell by looking at the winners list.

It's a nice accomplishment but I'm sure most players would rather win one of the actual Grand Slams.

Well, just read about what Olympics means for Djokovic himself, you'll be surprised.

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/tennis/rio/2016/novak-djokovic-olympic-gold-medal-would-be-one-of-the-high-points-of-my-career_sto5707297/story.shtml

What I said before computes perfectly with the fact that he performed notably worse when both Olympics and CYGS were on the line, he played nervous and erratic against Zverev in Tokyo and against Medvedev in US Open, this is proof of what both achievements mean for him, it means so much to him that the pressure was too much and he underperformed. On the contrary, he played more freely in the other three GS, including against washed up Nadal in RG 2021.

[Bum Adebayo]

To me it's clear that Nadal is the best when it comes to mental strength, we've heard about 40-15erer for so long that it's not needed to bring it up again, and we've seen how Djokovic crumbles when he is not playing catchup anymore against Federer and Nadal and very important achievements are on the line.
However, Nadal is clearly less talented than Federer and Djokovic, he had to compensate for this by being mentally stronger and practicing and repetition more than anyone else. For starters, it's a miracle that he has more than 8 GS with his mediocre serve, which is the most important weapon today. In the end though, his demanding playstyle means he is already washed up sooner than Federer and Djokovic.
Djokovic I'd say is the better player between the three. But he is no GOAT.

[gp2015]

Look, I've no issue in admitting Djokovic is the best player we've ever seen in the Open Era. The problem is that Big3 GOAThood is a marketing scam, we are suddenly forgetting what Laver did. Big3 have been playing catchup with Laver the whole time, he achieved CYGS multiple times, which is the most important and prestigious achievement, come back to me when they win CYGS even just 1 time.
I mean, Djokovic hasn't even won the most prestigious tournament, which is Olympics, this doesn't mean he is not better than Federer and Nadal, it just means he cannot be GOAT, his resume has serious cracks that are masked only because people suddenly forgot that Laver exists.

TLDR: DjokovicWillNeverBeGOAT

Olympics is not the most prestigious tournament of the year. Many players don't even play or take it that seriously and you can tell by looking at the winners list.

It's a nice accomplishment but I'm sure most players would rather win one of the actual Grand Slams.

Well, just read about what Olympics means for Djokovic himself, you'll be surprised.

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/tennis/rio/2016/novak-djokovic-olympic-gold-medal-would-be-one-of-the-high-points-of-my-career_sto5707297/story.shtml

What I said before computes perfectly with the fact that he performed notably worse when both Olympics and CYGS were on the line, he played nervous and erratic against Zverev in Tokyo and against Medvedev in US Open, this is proof of what both achievements mean for him, it means so much to him that the pressure was too much and he underperformed. On the contrary, he played more freely in the other three GS, including against washed up Nadal in RG 2021.

Sure, I think it does mean a lot for Djokovic but I don't think that sentiment is shared with the rest of the players, generally.

Only half the men's top 10 have made the trip to Brazil.
Swiss pair Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka are sidelined by injury, Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych pulled out over Zika concerns while Dominic Thiem chose to prioritise the ATP Tour.

It seems it's not a high priority to a lot of players, not only this year but previous years as well. Many players just decide to skip it altogether.

Djokovic has already accomplished so much, he probably sees it as one of the remaining things he still hasn't won, much like the CYGS.

[Ballerhogger]

close..

[FinnTheHuman]

Look, I've no issue in admitting Djokovic is the best player we've ever seen in the Open Era. The problem is that Big3 GOAThood is a marketing scam, we are suddenly forgetting what Laver did. Big3 have been playing catchup with Laver the whole time, he achieved CYGS multiple times, which is the most important and prestigious achievement, come back to me when they win CYGS even just 1 time.
I mean, Djokovic hasn't even won the most prestigious tournament, which is Olympics, this doesn't mean he is not better than Federer and Nadal, it just means he cannot be GOAT, his resume has serious cracks that are masked only because people suddenly forgot that Laver exists.

TLDR: DjokovicWillNeverBeGOAT

Olympics is not the most prestigious tournament of the year. Many players don't even play or take it that seriously and you can tell by looking at the winners list.

It's a nice accomplishment but I'm sure most players would rather win one of the actual Grand Slams.

Well, just read about what Olympics means for Djokovic himself, you'll be surprised.

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/tennis/rio/2016/novak-djokovic-olympic-gold-medal-would-be-one-of-the-high-points-of-my-career_sto5707297/story.shtml

What I said before computes perfectly with the fact that he performed notably worse when both Olympics and CYGS were on the line, he played nervous and erratic against Zverev in Tokyo and against Medvedev in US Open, this is proof of what both achievements mean for him, it means so much to him that the pressure was too much and he underperformed. On the contrary, he played more freely in the other three GS, including against washed up Nadal in RG 2021.

I'd agree that he choked against Zverev in the Olympics, but I think this match vs Medvedev was mostly about physical fatigue. He just didn't look like he had legs so he tried to make rallies last as short as possible, just as Mats Villander said, despite his best tennis being long rallies where he's playing like a wall returning everything near the opponent's baseline, until the opponent crumbles. But this time, Novak didn't switch to that strategy when he began losing, he tried to be aggressive until the very end, which proves that he thought he didn't have the legs to win the long match, because he spent 5.5h more than Medvedev on the court.

[Johnny Firpo]

But this time, Novak didn't switch to that strategy when he began losing, he tried to be aggressive until the very end, which proves that he thought he didn't have the legs to win the long match, because he spent 5.5h more than Medvedev on the court.

Nah, he made many unforced errors in neutral rallies too, and missed some easy volleys too, not just towards the end. His body language was also pretty bad, he was clearly very stressed, much more than usual, which is understandable.

[FinnTheHuman]

But this time, Novak didn't switch to that strategy when he began losing, he tried to be aggressive until the very end, which proves that he thought he didn't have the legs to win the long match, because he spent 5.5h more than Medvedev on the court.

Nah, he made many unforced errors in neutral rallies too, and missed some easy volleys too, not just towards the end. His body language was also pretty bad, he was clearly very stressed, much more than usual, which is understandable.

I really don't respect you nor your repetitive bias poorly disguised as objective opinions in this topic, so yea...