Let’s agree, for the moment, to let bygone world beaters remain bygone
world beaters and not dredge up the amateur era and its idiosyncrasies
or the golden age of the steamship when the Australian Championships,
later to become the Australian Open, were literally a once-in-a-lifetime
experience for many a tennis star and thus no proper place to pad one’s
Grand Slam statistics.
No, let’s stay firmly in the 21st century for a change and agree that,
with another men’s season about to end at the ATP World Tour Finals in
London, there is an increasingly great debate to be had about who the
greatest men’s player of this generation might be.
“I really hate the best-of-all-time debate and hate going back through
the generations and comparing them with all the problems inherent in
that,” said Darren Cahill, the Australian coach and former player who is
now a leading analyst. “But this one I think you can actually do it and
have a pretty good argument about it. And you can certainly form an
argument both ways at this stage.”
Partisans of incumbent Roger Federer and challenger Rafael Nadal
tend to get their backs up quickly on any Roger-Rafa rubbing point, but
this subject seems particularly ripe for generating dismissive looks
and acid tweets from Camp Federer.
Their still elegant man is, after all, the one who has won more Grand
Slam singles titles (17) than any other, including Nadal with 13. Their
still relevant man is the one who spent a record 302 weeks at No.1, set
marks that may never be broken by reaching 23 Grand Slam semifinals in a
row and 36 Grand Slam quarterfinals in a row and has also won a
record-tying seven singles titles at the Grand Slam daddy of them all,
Wimbledon.
But Nadal, that rare breed of self-depreciating alpha male, has
increasingly robust arguments of his own (even if he won’t make them
himself) at this still prime time in his tennis life. He is, after all,
just 27 although one does wonder how old his knees might be biologically
at this stage.
“It’s a fun dinner conversation,” said Jim Courier, a former No.1, of
the Federer-Nadal debate. “I’m not sure you can convincingly say that
one guy is the greatest right now.”
Andre Agassi, a former No.1 and fellow American who played and lost to
both Federer and Nadal, was on the same conference call with Courier
last week.
“I do think, without Rafa winning one more major, you could make the
argument that he’s the best of all time,” said Agassi, who, like Nadal
and Federer, belongs to the group of just seven men who have won all
four Grand Slam singles titles during their careers.
Nadal has won a record eight French Opens on clay, a surface more widely
used by tennis players — both professional and recreational — than the
grass that has been so friendly to Federer. Nadal also has two important
tennis box tops that the 32-year-old Federer is now unlikely to
acquire: an Olympic gold medal in singles and a Davis Cup title.
Nadal, in fact, has played a leading or supporting role in four Davis Cup victories for Spain.
“Davis Cup is not what it was and I don’t really know how it’s viewed in
Switzerland, but here in Spain it’s a big deal,” said Manolo Santana,
tournament director at the Madrid Masters 1000 who was the greatest
Spanish player in history until Nadal’s emergence.
But just as important a debating point is Nadal’s ability to crunch the
best numbers in what remains the essence of tennis, a sport often
referred to as boxing without the blood. In mano a mano tussles, Nadal
has no equal. He holds a 21-10 record over Federer, the archrival who
has gradually become something closer to cannon fodder on outdoor hard
courts as well as clay. But then Nadal holds a winning record over every
other Grand Slam singles champion who has crossed his path as a
professional, except the former French Open winner Gastón Gaudio, with whom he split six matches before Gaudio retired.
Nadal, back at No.1 after a phenomenal comeback from knee problems, also
holds a winning record over every member of the current top 30: from
Novak Djokovic at No.2 to Dmitry Tursunov at No.30.
With Nadal in the mix, neither Federer nor anyone else can say the same.
“We’ve spoken for many years about the bad matchup Nadal is for Federer,
but he’s a bad matchup for everybody now,” Cahill said. “It wasn’t that
way early in his career, and that’s where Nadal has been able to evolve
his game and solve a lot of problems he had early in his career with
certain types of players. He’s become a better all-around player. We’ve
seen that with him tinkering with his serve, with him moving to the net
more efficiently, with creating a stronger backhand, to having a little
more confidence in the big situations, to solving the Djokovic problem
he had a couple years ago, to being prepared to take that forehand a
little quicker down the line with more authority earlier in the point.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen another No.1 tinker with his game so much,
and I think that’s a credit to him and to his uncle and coach, Toni.”
Nadal also has the best career winning percentage in tour history at 84
percent to Federer’s 81. Nadal also has the edge in Grand Slam winning
percentage over Federer at 88 to 86 and in Masters 1000 winning
percentage (84 to 77) as well as a better strike rate against top 10
opponents (69 to 65).
But there is one phase of the season where Nadal is simply no match for
Federer, and that would be this phase, the largely indoor season that
starts after the United States Open
and concludes with the elite, eight-man World Tour Finals, formerly
known as the Tennis Masters Cup, which begin Monday.
It is the only truly significant tennis title that Nadal has yet to win,
and it is one that Federer has claimed a record six times, be it in
Houston, Shanghai or London. That statistical mismatch also emphasizes
another point in Federer’s favor. He has had to face Nadal on Nadal’s
best surface a great deal more than Nadal has had to play him on grass
or indoors.
They have played 15 times on clay with Nadal leading, 13-2. They have
played three times on grass, all at Wimbledon, with Federer winning
twice, and have played four times on indoor hard courts with Federer
sweeping the four, all of which were played at the World Tour Finals
where the ball has traditionally bounced low and out of Nadal’s
now-expanded comfort zone.
“They’ve been playing each other for what, nine years?” said Cahill.
“And they’ve only played four times after the U.S. Open. That’s not
much, and that would be something that’s sort of in the Federer camp.
I’m sure he’d like to get a crack at Rafa at a few of those tournaments
and maybe now he will with his ranking slipping down a little bit
because he doesn’t have to wait for a final to play him. He might get
him in a quarter or a semi.
“That 21-10 record is not something Roger will want to look back on, and
I’m sure he’d like to get a few more wins on the board before his
career finishes.”
But then Nadal, a man who has often explained that he likes the struggle
for the trophy more than the trophy, would presumably like to get a few
more on the board before his career finishes, too. Though Federer, with
his still superior Grand Slam haul, much longer run at No.1 and epic
durability, still seems worthy of the nod in this generational parlor
game, Nadal — knees and other body parts willing — should have quite a
while longer to keep struggling and producing trump cards of his own,
including that first World Tour Finals title.
“Believe me, for him it’s very, very important,” Santana said. “And I really think Rafa has a great chance this year.”
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