The most dominant year ever

Congratulations to Novak Djokovic for winning the USO to cap off the most dominant year ever in tennis. It was a great performance from him and i'm still wondering what happened in the 4th set. Nadal left the court. A great victory. For Nadal, well he has accepted Djokovic has been better than him this year in every measurable way. He is being dominated by a player who seems to refuse to lose. He will still get his chances but he is 2nd favourite every time now. There is little use dissecting it and getting delusional, Djokovic now is better than him.

For Djokovic now, with 4 slams and what he is doing, he is an all time great already and will be great to see him win the AO. If he keeps this level up, we might chant GOAT very soon. The quality of his slams have s been the highest, coming right in the Golden Era.

Djokovic has some way to go to catch Nadal.

Nadal is metnally weaker. In last 10 matches he has only won 4 sets against him. Every time he plays he fears of lsoign to him. This h2h is getting worse than Nadal and Fed. As Fed did beat Nadal on faster courts of O2 whereas Nadal is just getting owned.

Nadal will always remain the second best first behind TMF and now amazing Djko. There are high chances that Djoko will eclipse his tally of 10 slams.

Oh, one more thing. Nadal has yet to defend a major other than FO, hmmm. (your post)

Hello Simpleton my friend...

can we have an idea of what your 'back-up' article was going to be had Nadal found a miracle way to the title??

Come on

yeah golden era with a 30 year old no. 3 and on the verge of retirement Mardy fish- most improved player of the saeason. Very aptly put. Rafa losing to a player who Fed almost took out in SF and did not beat so he could drub Nadal again.

Second strongest mentally isn't that bad.

Indeed.. and the only player who looks at all like beating him is the old guy from the 'weak era'

Alas for The Nadull; his 1-D game exposed again.

No variety..

No finesse...

Just bludgeon, grunt, bludgeon, grunt and repeat for five hours.


It must be awful to be dominated by your biggest rival IN YOUR PEAK years on EVERY SURFACE.



emancipator - it's the truth baby.

look at qfs of golden era- Roddick, isner, tipsy and fish. yeah agreed, really a golden era,

simpleton has done a runner

Roger double-faulted on purpose to make sure Rafa didn't get another slam.

In fairness that Nadal of tonite would have probably edged Federer, and definitely have beaten anyone else... he just cant cope with this machine!

First and foremost, highest congratulations to Novak. That was a tremendous match, and he is a more than worthy US Open champion.

After that 3rd set TB, I thought he was in big trouble. Nadal in the latter part of that set looked strong, and determined. Along with his back niggle, many players would have simply been done. Whilst there was the obvious disappearance of Nadal's energy, fitness is a big part of the game, so it's not an excuse, Djokovic's attitude, performance, was superior, and he earned that title, with every point. I can't imagine what was going through his mind, having lost that 3rd set, against an opponent who at the time, looked like he could go another 2 sets, with no problem. Yet he BELIEVED, stayed strong and "took care of business!"

That said, I have been surfing around the many websites carrying news of this amazing victory, and yet another Major win in 2011. It's quite incredible the list of superlatives that are being written of this match. Putting this match in or over, the 2008 Wimbledon Final - come on! Both players played ugly at times, way more UE than that match, and 6-1 in the 4th, will never have the drama of 9-7 in the fifth, when Championship points have already passed by, in a previous set!

However, let's be clear. Four Majors Singles titles in a calendar year - the real, and true definition of something titled a "Grand Slam," beats, hands down, the winning of three Major titles in a calendar year. Whatever string of ATP titles, be they 250, 500 or 1000 Masters Series titles (or whatever they are named, and renamed) that a player wins during that same year - 3 Majors, does not beat 4 Majors.

It takes nothing away from the majestic Novak's game, or year, to remind that this year, is NOT the greatest ever. One could talk the paint off the wall about, Era's, fitness past and present, quality of opponents past and present, but the Game world wide, acnkowledges the Major titles, as being the utmost "measuring of the game."

I would whole heartedly support the comment that 2011, Djokovic's year, is the 2nd greatest year of any and all tennis players that have come and gone, or are still playing the game currently. It over-ranks, McEnroe's 1984, even if Djokovic were to end up with double, or treble the losses (2) of McEnroe that year. What he is done is tremendous, incredible, amazing, fantastic. No question.

It does not however, out rank Laver's Grand Slam of 1968. Four of four Majors in a calendar year, is, perfection in terms of the bigger history of the game.

As a huge Rafa fan, it does not enter my mind, to not acknowledge with total respect what Djokovic has achieved this year, so far. He doesn't need to win another match, for it to be, what it is - utterly amazing. He has had the "answers" to Nadal's game, at each time of asking, and stands unchallenged as World No 1 - deservedly so.

Well done Novak, nothing can detract from this year; whatever happens in 2012, your 2011 is just stunning, and the best accomplishment in the Sport of tennis, since 1968.

yloponom68 wrote:First and foremost, highest congratulations to Novak. That was a tremendous match, and he is a more than worthy US Open champion.

After that 3rd set TB, I thought he was in big trouble. Nadal in the latter part of that set looked strong, and determined. Along with his back niggle, many players would have simply been done. Whilst there was the obvious disappearance of Nadal's energy, fitness is a big part of the game, so it's not an excuse, Djokovic's attitude, performance, was superior, and he earned that title, with every point. I can't imagine what was going through his mind, having lost that 3rd set, against an opponent who at the time, looked like he could go another 2 sets, with no problem. Yet he BELIEVED, stayed strong and "took care of business!"

That said, I have been surfing around the many websites carrying news of this amazing victory, and yet another Major win in 2011. It's quite incredible the list of superlatives that are being written of this match. Putting this match in or over, the 2008 Wimbledon Final - come on! Both players played ugly at times, way more UE than that match, and 6-1 in the 4th, will never have the drama of 9-7 in the fifth, when Championship points have already passed by, in a previous set!

However, let's be clear. Four Majors Singles titles in a calendar year - the real, and true definition of something titled a "Grand Slam," beats, hands down, the winning of three Major titles in a calendar year. Whatever string of ATP titles, be they 250, 500 or 1000 Masters Series titles (or whatever they are named, and renamed) that a player wins during that same year - 3 Majors, does not beat 4 Majors.

It takes nothing away from the majestic Novak's game, or year, to remind that this year, is NOT the greatest ever. One could talk the paint off the wall about, Era's, fitness past and present, quality of opponents past and present, but the Game world wide, acnkowledges the Major titles, as being the utmost "measuring of the game."

I would whole heartedly support the comment that 2011, Djokovic's year, is the 2nd greatest year of any and all tennis players that have come and gone, or are still playing the game currently. It over-ranks, McEnroe's 1984, even if Djokovic were to end up with double, or treble the losses (2) of McEnroe that year. What he is done is tremendous, incredible, amazing, fantastic. No question.

It does not however, out rank Laver's Grand Slam of 1968. Four of four Majors in a calendar year, is, perfection in terms of the bigger history of the game.

As a huge Rafa fan, it does not enter my mind, to not acknowledge with total respect what Djokovic has achieved this year, so far. He doesn't need to win another match, for it to be, what it is - utterly amazing. He has had the "answers" to Nadal's game, at each time of asking, and stands unchallenged as World No 1 - deservedly so.

Well done Novak, nothing can detract from this year; whatever happens in 2012, your 2011 is just stunning, and the best accomplishment in the Sport of tennis, since 1968.

I think it's a bit premature to declare this the greatest year since Laver's 68.

In 2006, Fed won 12 tournaments including the WTF, 3 slams and reached the final of the 4rth slam. If your determinant for greatest year ever is the performance at slams, then Fed's '06 trumps this year.

Novak still needs to finish this year strongly to overhaul Roger's performance. Roger also won 92 matches that year. It's still going to be tough to beat that, since Novak can't afford to lose more than 2 matches from now until the end of the season (Roger lost five matches in 2006) and probably needs to win the WTF since Roger outperformed him in the slams.

Novak the great, I love how novak starts winning and now the era is weaker. I guess the fed apologists view Robredo and ljubicic as world beaters. Novak is having the best year since laver won the slam. And all this talk about how roger keeps beating him, are you guys trapped in 2006? 4-1 this year against Roger and he really was one hold of serve from beating Roger in a match that he didn't play well at in RG.

Novak may slump at the end of the year but he is on course to surpass the best year Fed ever had. He may not get there but the tough competition and the record haul of masters and 3 slams makes this year as special as anything we have seen since laver.

People have poor memories and they easily forget how some other players not very long ago managed even higher achievements.

socal1976 wrote:I love how novak starts winning and now the era is weaker.

Are people really saying that? Or are they saying it's simply no different than say, 2007 or 2010?
I love how Novak starts winning and now the era is Golden.

Well done Novak.

With regard to the current era - it sure is one he won't forget!

Is it Christmas already?

socal1976 wrote:Novak the great, I love how novak starts winning and now the era is weaker. I guess the fed apologists view Robredo and ljubicic as world beaters. Novak is having the best year since laver won the slam. And all this talk about how roger keeps beating him, are you guys trapped in 2006? 4-1 this year against Roger and he really was one hold of serve from beating Roger in a match that he didn't play well at in RG.

Novak may slump at the end of the year but he is on course to surpass the best year Fed ever had. He may not get there but the tough competition and the record haul of masters and 3 slams makes this year as special as anything we have seen since laver.

socal, you're actually a liar about this. Nobody I see calls the era weak, some of us have rumbled the idiocy of the "Golden Era" myth. As yiou keep being told, weak era theories are for fool and clowns.

This era is not weak.

As for "what ifs", I think Federer has the bigger what if over Djokovic this year. He lost at Roland Garros 4 months ago. Federer lost ay teh US two days ago. We Fed fans are over it, why can't you get over the French?

Anyone laying claim to the most dominant year ever may need to have been in all 4 slam finals - Laver has managed that, as did Federer in 2006, 2007, and 2009.

I'd rank this year behind Fed's 2006 so far - as emancipator says there's still a long way to go to match 2006 in terms of matches and tournaments won, and one thing Djoko can't do is say he's been in all 4 slam finals. This year is better than Fed's 2009 for sure and I'd say that the TMS run means that this year will probably end up better than Fed's 2007, although that was a pretty damn special year and the quality of tennis he played in winning the Aus Open was sublime in its match of power and artistry.

I am over it BB, I am just interested in what kind of scheduling and draw rigging Novak will have to contend with next season. How will the draw rigging committees attempt to manufacture a fedal final? Really, I am not angry about much right now, very, very happy. But the draw rigging committees and their warped fascination of fedal finals need to be exposed for the credibility of the game.

socal1976 wrote: 4-1 this year against Roger and he really was one hold of serve from beating Roger in a match that he didn't play well at in RG.

Funny that you can see one hold of serve as only a minor thing from him winning the FO semis and going on even to win FO it. But just doesn't see only 1 point at 40-15 from getting him out of US open in the semis. And Novak did play his best against Federer in the FO semis, that performance would have easily won him against Nadal. He played much poor in Wimbledon and US open finals compared to that, but that was enough for winning. Only thing is Federer that FO semis performed flawless and Djo could do nothing about it.

You're losing it. There is no rigging, there is no conspiracy.

Do you know that they've got pictures of the lunar modules on the Moon now?

Interesting, btw, that you see being drawn against Federer so threatening that you regard it as rigging to fix Djokovic.

It was Rafa who drew the balls out the hat - perhaps he'll come clean about it in his next book.