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Roger does it again...


Darth Spoon
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I *almost* bumped this!

 

I love Roger. He's just so... studly. And so, so classy.

 

Have to feel for Andy Murray though. He could legitimately be one of the greatest players ever and we wouldn't know because of Federer and Nadal (and maybe Djokovic).

 

Federer reclaims his #1 ranking too, he'll tie Pete Sampras for 286 weeks at #1 and surpass him after that. Great run.

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Today's match, which I woke up at 3:30am for, is one of the 5 best sports moments of my life (give or take). I have wanted this so so bad for 5 years. I needed another Slam that I could appreciate in the moment as "the last one." The 2014 and 2015 Wimbledon Final losses against Peak-Djokovic were crushing, but the worst were actually Semifinal losses. 2014 at the US Open against Cilic after Nishikori had already beaten Djokovic and last year's Wimbledon against Roanic with "only" Murray awaiting in the Final.

 

Federer is right up there with Peyton Manning for me in terms of my favorite athletes. I can't express how sports-happy this makes me.

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Today's match, which I woke up at 3:30am

 

Myself as well. Great match and, if it comes to it, a nice topper to Federer's career.

 

 

 

I may be in the minority, but I'm not as impressed with Federer simply because of his dominating record. While his dominance at the top of his sport is noteworthy and worthy of plenty of accolades, my problem is that I think Federer was fortunate to be a dominating player without truly stiff competition to challenge him.

 

History hasn't been kind to this comment.

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(I've got plenty of my own bad takes lurking around, of course)

 

Yeah, wasn't really trying to get something stated on the off chance Otanku ever shows up again. That comment was a lot easier to defend back before it was quite so obvious that Federer's period of dominance delayed Nadal's emergence as an all-time great and contender for the crown of GOAT himself. Not to mention in hindsight Djokovic and Murray overlapping with his great years.

 

Funny thing, Otanku made that comment just after Federer won the 2010 Australian Open, which can probably be pinpointed as the last moment where he could be regarded as the co-dominant player with Nadal. Since that victory he's played in 26 grand slam tournaments. Here's how he's done:

 

At least quarterfinals: 22 (84.6% of the time)

At least semifinals: 16 (61.5% of the time)

At least finals: 6 (23% of the time)

Champion: 2 (7.7% of the time)

 

How many all-time greats can match that level of consistency even during their most productive seven years? During Federer's twilight as his skills erode, injuries nag, and he has been long surpassed by Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray, he is still almost a lock for cracking the Top 8 in any given grand slam and plays in the championship match about once a year. That might be his most underappreciated accomplishment. In its own right, it's stunning.

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The "performance timeline" is my favorite feature on golfers and tennis players wikipedia pages. They're great.

 

And 3 of those 4 missed QFs were during his awful back injury in 13/14 (probably should have shut it down the 2nd half of that year) and when he was experimenting with raquets. That Seppi match at the 2015 Australian Open was weird, I remember watching it but I don't really remember anything about the match.

 

You're exactly right about his ability to stick around, I mean since Wimbledon of his age-32 season his Slam results are F, SF, 3R, QF, F, F, SF, SF, W. Where's the dropoff in play? It'll still take a special effort for him to win another Slam (or more!) but the fact that he always puts himself in the QFs gives him a shot if something funky happens. And frankly, Djokovic is the only one I immediately chalk up as a loss. Against the others, depending on the surface and other in-tournament variables, he might not be the favorite but he's pretty near a coinflip.

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The "performance timeline" is my favorite feature on golfers and tennis players wikipedia pages. They're great.

 

Yeah, it really does put into perspective:

 

1) Just how ridiculously dominant he was between 2004-2009, including a 19 major run where he only missed the finals once. That's almost five straight years of nearly automatic runs to the championship match. Oh, and in that single blemish, he made the semis playing with freakin' mono and it still took Djokovic to beat him en route to his first grand slam victory.

 

2) That in the seven years post his dominant period, when he had already earned the title of GOAT from most tennis analysts, he's tacked on a post-script to his career that would still land him in the Top 25 of all-time even if you erased everything that came before it.

 

3) That only Jimmy Connors and Djokovic are even in the same ballpark for playing consistently excellent tennis over such a long period of time, and he still easily tops those two. So, not only did Federer have arguably the greatest peak of all-time, he's also the sport's career iron man.

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