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RE: Rafael Nadal's Is The Greatest Tennis Player of all Time
Cool breakdown.
Just to devil advocate a little:
One could be worse than the other H2H but still greater in general. Like if you're a uniquely bad matchup for me and usually beat me, but I'm way better against the field than you...
H2H for sure should mean something but it wouldn't settle it, even with an infinite sample size.
And Nadal probably is a way worse matchup (lefty, basically) than vice versa.
And true about clay being underrepresented. Altho the other side of the coin is clay is much lower variance. It's much tougher for a worse player to get lucky and win on clay than on grass, where it's relatively simple to hold and matches will more often hinge on a few break point chances.
To be honest, I'm playing devil's advocate: I still think Roger's the greatest, but if Rafa wins 2 more slams than Fed from here out I'll probably change my mind for good.
But yes, head to head isn't everything, particularly when Rafa matches up so well with Federer in general due to heavy topspin vs one handed backhand. It was just one piece of the argument why Rafa will be the greatest if he pulls closer in slams.
For sure! It's really so hard to say, and there are reasonable arguments one way or the other.
This has been a really bad year for Djokovich's legacy, lol. He still has time tho.
Yup, if Novak goes on a roll the next few years he will go down as the goat. Winning record vs both, most Master's 1000 titles (tied with Rafa), strong on every surface, highest peak ELO rating ever, and won his slams vs tougher competition (rafa and fed, instead of winning many in the early to mid 2000s vs weaker players)