The Tennis Thread

B-Train

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with all due respect, Ivanisevic is not an all time great... as for Lendl -->

“Daniil Medvedev, my accountant has a better personality,” he said.

“Daniil Medvedev, he makes Ivan Lendl look like Beyoncé. Daniil Medvedev, Terminator 4 had more facial expressions.”


I didn't say Goran was.. Just that I used to like most of the Eastern European players.

Haha. Yeah Medvedev is very unlikeable for that reason. Tennis is mainly about personalities in terms of popularity with the fans.
 

Freakzilla

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Who doesn't give Novak credit? Everyone universally agrees that he's one of the greatest ever. Lots of people think he is the greatest ever.

I don't understand why Novak fans get so defensive about who the GOAT is when it's totally a matter of opinion and doesn't diminish another players accomplishments.

I don't know how Novak, or anyone can be the undisputed GOAT when he's tied with Nadal for most slams and Fed only has 2 less than them. And even then, it's about more than stats and who won the most slams as eras are different etc. I think Sampras is close to those three but he retired much earlier. Had he played well into his mid 30's like those three, maybe he would have won another 5 or more slams.
Sampras at his best beats Novak & Nadal at Wimbeldon.
 

Freakzilla

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Tennis is a weird sport, every GS is basically different than the others & requires different skill sets to dominate on it. It's why Nadal dominates on clay but not on Grass.
 

B-Train

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Sampras at his best beats Novak & Nadal at Wimbeldon.
In my opinion if you somehow had them all in their prime, Sampras is the best player I've seen and was the most dominant. Doesn't mean he's the greatest ever because he retired younger. But he's the best player I've ever seen. The French Open was his cryptonite though
 

Freakzilla

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In my opinion if you somehow had them all in their prime, Sampras is the best player I've seen and was the most dominant. Doesn't mean he's the greatest ever because he retired younger. But he's the best player I've ever seen. The French Open was his cryptonite though
For me Federer is 1 then Sampras 2 on grass. Novak is probably 2 on hardcourt. Nadal is behind all 3 when it's not clay.
 

alchemist

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Sampras at his best beats Novak & Nadal at Wimbeldon.
the real question is Sampras at his best vs Federer at his best on Wimbledon Centre Court, who wins? kind of like prime Jordan vs prime Kobe 1-on-1
 

B-Train

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For me Federer is 1 then Sampras 2 on grass. Novak is probably 2 on hardcourt. Nadal is behind all 3 when it's not clay.
Everyone's opinion is different and like you said with tennis, the argument is much more nuanced than in other sports because the surfaces are so different.
 

Freakzilla

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the real question is Sampras at his best vs Federer at his best on Wimbledon Centre Court, who wins? kind of like prime Jordan vs prime Kobe 1-on-1
Nah Jordan is way better than Kobe.

Federer vs Sampras at Wimbeldon would be the top 2 players ever on grass & is my ultimate dream match.
 

B-Train

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the real question is Sampras at his best vs Federer at his best on Wimbledon Centre Court, who wins? kind of like prime Jordan vs prime Kobe 1-on-1
I think Sampras just because his power used to wear opponents down and he still was great at ground strokes too. But Federer has the best technique and is the purest hitter I've ever seen and dominated at Wimbledon too, so it's hard to say.
 

alchemist

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I didn't say Goran was.. Just that I used to like most of the Eastern European players.

Haha. Yeah Medvedev is very unlikeable for that reason. Tennis is mainly about personalities in terms of popularity with the fans.
Medvedev is interesting with his trolling... for example, last year after coming back from 2 sets down at the AO, he said in his on court post match interview:

“I was not playing my best and Felix was playing unbelievable, he was all over me,” Medvedev said. “I didn’t know what to do so I said... I don’t know if people are going to like it, but I told myself: ‘What would Novak do?’"

the problem for Medvedev is that he admitted after losing to Nadal in the AO final that the crowd got to him
 

Freakzilla

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Everyone's opinion is different and like you said with tennis, the argument is much more nuanced than in other sports because the surfaces are so different.
Yeah that's why even if I don't agree with someone I still respect their opinion on the tennis goat convo. Though Nadal to me can't be the GOAT because he is the clay goat and wouldn't be top 5 ever if there were no clay courts.
 

Freakzilla

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I think Sampras just because his power used to wear opponents down and he still was great at ground strokes too. But Federer has the best technique and is the purest hitter I've ever seen and dominated at Wimbledon too, so it's hard to say.
I think Federer just but I wouldn't be surprised if Sampras beat Federer if both were at their primes.

Neither would dominate like they did if they played in the same era.
 

alchemist

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Nah Jordan is way better than Kobe.

Federer vs Sampras at Wimbeldon would be the top 2 players ever on grass & is my ultimate dream match.
Jordan is considerably better in team basketball but I think it would be an incredible contest 1-on-1
 

B-Train

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Yeah that's why even if I don't agree with someone I still respect their opinion on the tennis goat convo. Though Nadal to me can't be the GOAT because he is the clay goat and wouldn't be top 5 ever if there were no clay courts.
I still think he'd be in the top 5 as he improved a lot on the other three surfaces later in his career. He'd still have 8 slams without the French and he'd have more if not for Fed and Novak. But I understand the argument because 14 French Opens distorts his record..

Then again, 10 of Novak's 22 are at the Australian Open.
 

alchemist

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I think Sampras just because his power used to wear opponents down and he still was great at ground strokes too. But Federer has the best technique and is the purest hitter I've ever seen and dominated at Wimbledon too, so it's hard to say.
Sampras' serve was majestic and it meant that he could keep himself in matches... he was also good from the back of the court but his ability to shorten points by coming to the net would also save him physically against the Big 3... and he was a big match player --> 7 Wimbledon finals for 7 wins... Federer has 4 Wimbledon finals losses on the resume to Djokovic (3) and Nadal
 

B-Train

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Sampras' serve was majestic and it meant that he could keep himself in matches... he was also good from the back of the court but his ability to shorten points by coming to the net would also save him physically against the Big 3... and he was a big match player --> 7 Wimbledon finals for 7 wins... Federer has 4 Wimbledon finals losses on the resume to Djokovic (3) and Nadal
Yeah he had amazing skill, touch and agility for a big powerful guy. Not many people before him had that big and consistent a serve while still being able to move well and hit every shot well. Plus he had amazing poise like you said. He never got rattled. And you need to be stronger mentally in tennis than almost any other sport.
 

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I still think he'd be in the top 5 as he improved a lot on the other three surfaces later in his career. He'd still have 8 slams without the French and he'd have more if not for Fed and Novak. But I understand the argument because 14 French Opens distorts his record..

Then again, 10 of Novak's 22 are at the Australian Open.
I think Agassi at his peak is better than Nadal at his peak on grass/hardcourt. I don't even count last year's Aussie open because Novak wasn't allowed to play.
 

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alchemist

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Yeah he had amazing skill, touch and agility for a big powerful guy. Not many people before him had that big and consistent a serve while still being able to move well and hit every shot well. Plus he had amazing poise like you said. He never got rattled. And you need to be stronger mentally in tennis than almost any other sport.
probably only the combat sports are a bigger drain mentally on the participants than tennis
 

B-Train

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I think Agassi at his peak is better than Nadal at his peak on grass/hardcourt. I don't even count last year's Aussie open because Novak wasn't allowed to play.
Agassi could have been anything if not for his issues and time away. The fact that he was so good in the second stage of his career is testament to how good he was.
 
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