Didn't watch either final but congrats to Djokovic and Kerber.
With the win Novak is surely top 5 all-time now, and all eyes will be on him to see if he can complete the career grand slam at the French, though it's still over 4 months away.
He's for sure in the demigod pantheon now, I'd say: Federer, Nadal, Sampras, Laver, Borg, Djokovic, Tilden.
I think the first four are locks in one order or another, and then #5 is the makings for a good argument between Borg, Djokovic and Tilden. But those arguments better happen in a hurry because by the end of the year Nole could be making a case for #2 all time behind Roger if he is lucky.
Note: I'm excluding Emerson who has 12 GS titles but many of those came as an amateur while his betters (principally Laver and Rosewall) were playing in the professional ranks and, thus, not allowed to enter GS competitions. There is no accurate record of his lifetime head to head record against Rosewall that I could find. But against the more researched Laver, Rod dominates 49-18, including 21-10 in finals, and 7-2 in Slams. I suspect his record against Rosewall would be very much in the same ball park at best (when I was a boy I remember top Aussies Rosewall and Lew Hoad constantly pounding on Emerson). After everybody turned pro and the Open era began in 1968, here is how Emerson fared against the field:
Rod Laver 1-14
Arthur Ashe 1-11
Ken Rosewall 1-5
Pancho Gonzales 0-1
John Newcombe 7-5
Tony Roche 4-3
Overall Record 14-39 (most info from
Secadametrics's Blog)
The wild card player in any all-time ranking discussion is Pancho Gonzales, a rebel, who played as a professional most of his career and owned virtually everybody in his prime. I remember following him in 1969 over a two day period as he beat Charlie Pasarell 22-24 1-6 16-14 6-3 11-9, then by far the longest singles match of its time as well as one of the most formidable comebacks from two sets down in the history of the game. Pasarell was a US star at the time and 25 years old. Pancho was 41.