Re: 2014 Australian Open
Reply #55 –
Thats mind boggling Gozza. Federer is a great, Nadal might be considered a great but has a fair way to go, and same with Djokovic who is also on his way to being a great, but Hewitt has played in one of the softest period of all around stars.
Curious about this. What, in you opinion, makes a player great? Rafa has won 13 grand slam titles, only Federer and Sampras are ahead of him.
He has a fair way to go? Rightio.
If you want to define greatness by results, then so be it, but for me, when you win 8 out of the last 9 French Open titles to make up the majority of that 13, and the one you lost happens to be to Roger Federer (Who you beat 4 out of the other 8 times in the final) then that speaks to the level of competition that exists in the world of Tennis.
Things have only gotten interesting over the last 3-4 years if you ask me, but thats just my opinion. Aside from that, the competition has never been more lopsided which lessens the achievements of people currently dominating the tour.
Yet he's one of only 7 players in the history of the game to win all four slams. Even Sampras couldn't do that...and he won half of his slams at Wimbledon. It's OK to say he's a great though, I'm sure?
Stop arguing semantics. If its unclear to you, I think the term great is bandied about too readily these days.
Tennis of the nineties was a bit different. Lots of players for both men and women were all at the top of their games and Tennis was much more cat and mouse than it was today. Going into every tournament you were looking at any of roughly 6-8 players that could realistically win and that was true for men and women.
Now its one of Djokovic, Nadal, Federer is dropping off, and Murray is up and coming. The rest are generally making up numbers. One might make it interesting occasionally but usually thats a rarity.
Do I consider Sampras a great... No. A tennis great (given the dominance is more about timing than anything else). For me a Tennis great should be someone who has won all four majors in a year. Otherwise you end up with too many Greats.
Happy now?