Another Wall Of Fame contest.
Posted by tennisplanet on August 26, 2010
What can Nadal attempt to do next season that can put him at par with Federer for GOAT title if not surpass him – as reaching or exceeding 16 maybe getting out of hand?
First correct answer = Wall Of Fame listing.
nelson goodman said
Calendar grand slam?
Barbara said
Calendar slam
Sarah said
I agree with that one. He would have to drop some tournaments from his schedule; but it is possible.
BANTI said
“He would have to drop some tournaments from his schedule; but it is possible.”
Sorry Sarah, Did i miss something? Did the AO say their making a switch to clay with the new prime minister? The heat will tear those courts up! Has Rafa made a US Open final in his career? The only person of this generation to ever have a chance in pulling this off is/was the GOAT, Fed, being one match away 3 times.
Rafa’s best chance for the GOAT title will depend on how he does on the hard courts, thats for sure. He’s made one final on a hard court in 14 attempts, and he did that without facing a top ten player. 1/14 being seeded 2nd or 1st in the majority of them! No injuries, no exhaustion at the moment right? So lets see him make his first US Open final, where you can be sure he’ll meet the GOAT on the other end, and than we can talk possibilities in my opinion.
wuiches said
BANTI
It’s funny how you try minimize Rafa’s OZ by saying this:
“He’s made one final on a hard court in 14 attempts, and he did that without facing a top ten player”
It seems that you are forgetting who he defeated in that final!!!!!!!!!!
Nobody will ever question Rafa for that!!!
But what can you tell me about Roger’s French Open????
Also keep in mind that they met 3 times at Wimby and Nadal won 1, 4 times at RG and Nadal won all of them and 1 time at OZ and Nadal won it!!!
How can you remember that he never faced a top ten at the OZ and forget all of this????
BANTI said
Wuiches believe me I do not. What I left out , many Fed fans already know. That when Rafa plays Roger he poses a match up problem strategically for him, much like Potro, Davydenko, and a few others do for Rafa. Roger served worse (first serve percentage) than any of his over 20 GS finals matches in that match as well. Worst serving performance of his career, on the big stage, look that up… Potro in my eyes “beat” Roger Federer in a hard court slam, Roger beat himself in the match with Rafa.
“But what can you tell me about Roger’s French Open????” 4 finals with one win in his career. Roger Federer is a better clay court player than Rafa is a hard court player. statistically and in most people’s eyes. Until Rafa proves otherwise, he’s one step below.
I do think Rafa is approaching Borg’s level at the moment in the debate as the second greatest of all time.
wuiches said
“Roger beat himself in the match with Rafa”
lol!!
well my esteemed BAN, with that kind of arguments it’s impossible to not consider Roger as the GOAT!!!
but I respect your thinking.
The question is why Roger and many great servers lose their serve rhythm against Nadal???
BANTI said
He had a 45% first serve percentage for the match, Rafa must have scared the bejeezus out of him, your right.
Vr said
Go Banti. Even there I slightly disagree in that even Delpo, thought he played a phenomenal final, took five sets to beat Fed and thrashed Rafa in three in SF. Fed is the second best clay player and Rafa is not the second best hard Ct player.
O said
Sweep all tourneys he contest.
Anonymous said
Graduate from sporadic excellence to sustained excellence.
Thus far, despite amassing 8 Slam wins, he has yet to appear
in more than 2 consecutive Slam Finals in his entire career.
Even Sampras, sans French, did 3 once…
Bjornino said
Agree with the above post. But…if Nadal should win a calendar slam next year he’d be at 12 slams at age 25. Which would make 16 very possible. So… Well, the future will tell.
Vr said
Calendar slam without a career slam. Wow!!
BANTI said
Lol I laughed at this too.
chieko said
😆
wuiches said
First the calendar year slam without a doubt
Second he must have more hard court titles than Federer clay titles to prove that he is a better all surface player than Roger(on grass he is already considered a great player I think), so Nadal has to sweep the hard court 1000’s next year too.
Vr said
Sad part is that there aren’t as many grass tournaments as there are of clay or hard court. It is an uneven schedule….
Stella said
get married, have twins, win a calendar grand slam, win the US Open series, Indian wells, Miami. toronto, get elected President of spain, endorse ice cream ( Fed has chocolate locked up already)quit picking his but — then he’ll be close to Fed LOL
Stella said
sorry I meant triplets
sperry said
Curing a disease would help. Come up with a difinitive answer for how long ago the Big Bang happened. (Pictures would help.) (Goes without saying he’s gotta do all the stuff Stella listed, too.)
BANTI said
lol
wuiches said
hahahahahahahahah Stella you are cool!!!!!!!!!!!!
O said
Wall of fame, Stella!
chieko said
🙄 😆 Ha ha ha ha I love you Stella san, you are unbelievable!! 😀
jett09 said
Very funny Stella 😆 😆 😆
O said
I think TP has something wicked in mind, not about amassing slams, but to inflict the severest beating on Federer and further improve that H2H. Nadal has beaten Federer in 3 of 4 slams, and Nadal will try to run up the scores whenever they meet again, deliver a beating like RG 2008.
Wait! It still doesn’t sound strong enough, maybe have Xisca inflict a beating on Mirka when they run into each other, and then parents, coaches…
I don’t know, sometimes no one knows what TP thinks, like the contest that has something to do with number “2”, maybe this one also has something to do with “2”.
chieko said
😕 TP sama sure got all of us thinking and thinking hard!!
jett09 said
“I don’t know, sometimes no one knows what TP thinks, like the contest that has something to do with number “2″, maybe this one also has something to do with “2″.”
Can someone please tell me who won that Quiz? Thanks.
overcaffeinated said
I think Rafa needs to buy a Ferrari. Yeah, that’s it.
M said
He already has a Harley and an Aston Martin – James Bond’s car! 😛
A Ferrari at this point might not even be interesting (especially since AndyMur sold his).
chieko said
🙄
Kitty said
win french+wimbledon(preferably beating fed) again, that will send fed into a tizzzy
get a +2 vs fed on hard courts thereby a positive h2h against fed on all surfaces (copied)
M said
Win 20 Masters before Roger wins 20 Slams?
Somebody Else said
That would be too easy, don’t you think? It’s practically in the bag, 20 Masters titles (and a few more for good measure).
Rafa may be the all-time Masters1000 leader when all is said and done. (Andre had Pete beat in that department, too)
I think he should just try to get as close as he can in the slam count, then let people’s tennis sensibilities decide who’s GOATer (as they do already).
M said
You could very well be right, SE.
I think I still maintain that, as their accomplishments are so different, we should have two GOATs. Especially if what you have so neatly posited could happen, happens.
(LOL @ “GOATer”.)
Blake said
Either the calendar slam, OR, if he wins the US Open, then the AO.. he’ll already be holding all four! Pretty sweet achievement.
Barbara said
TP, I’m confused. When I replay to Another Wall…, I was the first one. That is why Sarah commented on my post! Now Nelson Goodman is first – how is it possible???????
tennisplanet said
Barbara,
Nelson post didn’t show up when he posted because this is his first post and went into moderation. It showed when released.
D.S.G. said
Ooh, Tennisplanet, I love it when you are so brilliant !!
chieko said
May be someone had gone into moderation, may be that is why!?
chieko said
😆 yes I guessed correctly!!
Just Me said
Nothing.
Sol said
Yep, this.
I know it’s not the point of your contest, TP. But quite frankly, there’s about zero things Nadal can do next season that’ll “put him at par with Federer for GOAT title if not surpass him”. Especially not the “surpass him” part. Not next season anyway. Maybe later. As Bjornino says, time well tell.
Bonnie said
I agree Sol, nothing he can do next season, so we’ll just have to wait.
Veglia said
First of all, Borg is the GOAT!
Rafa can do the following – start playing with his right hand and switch to one-handed backhand. Use ProStaff 6.1 with natural gut, serve 130 mph on average and play serve-and-volley at RG. Beat Murray once. Learn german, italian and french. Play piano at the Met. Wed Shakira. Get a $1,200 haircut.
M said
LOL, Veglia.
Do you know what Rafa’s haircuts cost now?
😆
Stella said
all my suggestions and yours too Veglia and he may be close
Lord Oompa Loompa said
Win every match he plays next year. Be the first to have a completely undefeated tennis year… Oh, and dish out bagels to every opponent in every set played… And get a couple ‘Golden Sets’ in the process (opponent doesn’t win any points in those sets)… And give away all prize money won in every tournament to charity… And then all the stuff Stella and Veglia said!
🙂 -LOL
Stella said
it’a all going to be easy if that’s all it takes
Jenny said
M, Jett and other Rafa/Nalby fans.
Rafa and David played a practice match with each other in New York.:-) Rafa won. Ferru was practicing with Pico Monaco.
Jenny said
I should have added this 😈
M said
*sigh* Traveling today. I’m sorry I missed that.
“I should have added this”
LOL. Yes, indeed!
😈
Jenny said
Sorry, TP – I had intended to post my comment #18 on US Open live chat.
jett09 said
Wow how cool was that!! Any vids? Thanks Jenny!!
O said
Federer has announced a successful trial run with coach Paul Annacone, and will integrate the coach into his team.
Since their style matches so well, Federer stands to benefit immensely, and it’ll be nice to see a lot more success from the maestro.
M said
Yaaaaayyyy!
\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
(Also, whew. I thought there for a minute it wasn’t going to happen.)
Jenny said
🙂
chieko said
Very good news indeed. 😆
BANTI said
STAKHOVSKY looking like a serious threat in the 4th round for Rafa. He took Roddick to a very close 3 sets in Cinci. Beat Baggy in 3 and debaker in 2 in pilot pen, in finals with istomin. Good warm up for Nalby if Rafa makes the quarters.
BANTI said
Oopps wrong place to post this.
GEK said
If Nadal, considering the degree of difficulty of today’s competitive environment, can do for 3 contiguous years what Roger did for 4 (2004-2007). Anything else will not even come close to being THE GOAT. See mind-boggling Roger statistics @ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer_career_statistics.
Stella said
whatever Rafa does the thing that he’s unlikely to better and the thing that makes Fed the GOAT IMO is the massively unbroken string of semis and finals in all those grand slams for year after year. 22 is it ? that shows to me
1.continued excellence on all surfaces.
2 lack of injury or body problems for a very long time possibly due to fluid style of play.
3. was able to win time after time , even on a “bad ” day.
4. ability to win in all parts of the year — Oz, after the break. French after a hard clay season. Wimby after all the clay to switch to grass and win. USO after a long hard court time and towards the year end.
M said
Rafa himself always says that Roger is the best.
🙂
jett09 said
That is so sweet 😉
BANTI said
Well said Stella once again.
BANTI said
Something I just found out. Rafa does not have a career winning record against 8/9 of the current top ten players on the hard courts. Infact the only person he does have one with is Verdasco who he played to get to his only hard court slam final. By years end it is quite likely he will have a losing head to head against everyone in the top ten on the hard courts. Thats mind boggling considering 7/10 masters series titles and two slams are played on the surface. The close to 5000 points he gets on clay every year has taken him a long way to say the least. Fed on the other hand has a winning record against everyone in the top ten other than Rafa on clay, losing just two matches in his entire career to the others!
Somebody Else said
As far as stats are concerned, Fed’s career stats are so daunting a challenge even for 24-year-old Rafa to try matching, that he’d be better served by establishing mind-boggling stats of his own, in areas where Fed has not had as big an impact. BUT, it seems European clay is Rafa’s one true stronghold. He’s starting to get a hold of the grass portion of the summer. I’d be curious to know if he can dominate the majority of a season from January to November. There is a lot he’s capable of but hasn’t successfully tackled yet.
tennisplanet said
Winner: Nelson Goodman.
Kitty said
That was an obvious answer, I thought you had something up your sleeve.