Tennis: Australian Open 2018

[Hadoop]

Here's the video of Roger's victory speech:



I could see how people might take his emotions as a sign he is contemplating retirement at the end of the year, although it could just be a moment of reflection on his career after 20 GS wins as well.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Here's the video of Roger's victory speech:



I could see how people might take his emotions as a sign he is contemplating retirement at the end of the year, although it could just be a moment of reflection on his career after 20 GS wins as well.

I actually got that vibe as well. Seen him emotional plenty of times but this time just... felt different. Perhaps he was just reflecting on the incredible last 12 months he's experienced after having a pretty rough and frustrating go of it with so many close calls after 17 at Wimby until now though. It would've been easy to call it quits so many times during that period.

It will be a sad day for the sport, and for me, when players like Fed, Nadal and Serena retire.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

This victory by Federer is one for the ages. A 20th Grand Slam Title at his age in that sport is nothing shy of miraculous.

Federer might be the classiest act in all of sport.

 

[EpochLink]

Roger the GOAT, one of my fav sports players of all time

 

[kihei]

Roger's 20th and Caroliine's 1st: The Australian Open sure got the year off to a very special start.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Roger's 20th and Caroliine's 1st: The Australian Open sure got the year off to a very special start.

That's back to back years now where it's been pretty good for tennis fans.

 

[Epsilon]

If we look back at his career, how does the quality of competition Federer has faced stack up against other all-time greats? I'm not well versed enough to judge but my gut tells me Rogers career is not only the greatest it's also against very high competition.

One rudimentary way to look at this is to consider who Federer played in his 30 Grand Slam finals (apologies if I mis-counted anything):

-Nadal (9)
-Djokovic (4)
-Murray (3)
-Roddick (4)
-Hewitt
-Agassi
-Safin
-Cilic (2)
-Del Potro
-Mark Philippoussis
-Marcos Baghdatis
-Fernando Gonzalez
-Robin Soderling

Full names vs just last names was intentional as all the guys where I didn't write the full names out are both more well-known and (related, no doubt) Grand Slam champions (and mostly/all Hall of Famers or likely future ones). Nearly half of his finals are against Nadal and Djokovic, the former being probably top 3 all-time and the later top 5 (and definitely top 10). Even the guys at the bottom were all ranked in the top 10 at some point, and only Gonzalez didn't make at least 2 GS finals.

Del Potro is thus the answer to a fun trivia question: who is the only player in history that is undefeated against Roger Federer in Grand Slam finals?

 

[CHfan1]

One rudimentary way to look at this is to consider who Federer played in his 30 Grand Slam finals (apologies if I mis-counted anything):

-Nadal (9)
-Djokovic (4)
-Murray (3)
-Roddick (4)
-Hewitt
-Agassi
-Safin
-Cilic (2)
-Del Potro
-Mark Philippoussis
-Marcos Baghdatis
-Fernando Gonzalez
-Robin Soderling

Full names vs just last names was intentional as all the guys where I didn't write the full names out are both more well-known and (related, no doubt) Grand Slam champions (and mostly/all Hall of Famers or likely future ones). Nearly half of his finals are against Nadal and Djokovic, the former being probably top 3 all-time and the later top 5 (and definitely top 10). Even the guys at the bottom were all ranked in the top 10 at some point, and only Gonzalez didn't make at least 2 GS finals.

Del Potro is thus the answer to a fun trivia question: who is the only player in history that is undefeated against Roger Federer in Grand Slam finals?

That’s quite the list. 3 out of the 4 open era career grand slam winners (not including himself of course) are in that list. Only missing Laver.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

One rudimentary way to look at this is to consider who Federer played in his 30 Grand Slam finals (apologies if I mis-counted anything):

-Nadal (9)
-Djokovic (4)
-Murray (3)
-Roddick (4)
-Hewitt
-Agassi
-Safin
-Cilic (2)
-Del Potro
-Mark Philippoussis
-Marcos Baghdatis
-Fernando Gonzalez
-Robin Soderling

Full names vs just last names was intentional as all the guys where I didn't write the full names out are both more well-known and (related, no doubt) Grand Slam champions (and mostly/all Hall of Famers or likely future ones). Nearly half of his finals are against Nadal and Djokovic, the former being probably top 3 all-time and the later top 5 (and definitely top 10). Even the guys at the bottom were all ranked in the top 10 at some point, and only Gonzalez didn't make at least 2 GS finals.

Del Potro is thus the answer to a fun trivia question: who is the only player in history that is undefeated against Roger Federer in Grand Slam finals?

Baghdatis only made one GS Final, as well.

 

[Epsilon]

That’s quite the list. 3 out of the 4 open era career grand slam winners (not including himself of course) are in that list. Only missing Laver.

One thing that jumped out at me putting it together is that Federer didn't play as many GS finals as I thought against Roddick (4 is a lot, but I felt like there were more) and Hewitt. But then he's got several other SF/QF wins against them as well. Neither guy ever beat him at a Slam.

The 2009 US Open final stands out as the "one that got away", where Federer really should have beaten Del Potro.

Baghdatis only made one GS Final, as well.

Good catch. Seemed like he was "relevant name" for longer than Gonzalez though. Gonzalez is the only player on that list I legitimately don't remember.