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go on to win the french the following year and was in the midst of possibly the greatest run of grand slam performance anyone has ever done a run that saw him make the final of 18 out of 19 slams a number really only steffi graf and martina navratolova can match steffi reached 13 finals in a row from 1987 1990 and martina reached 22 out of 25 from 1981 to 1987 the best djokovic has done is 6 finals in a row serena 4 nadal 5 chris evert is tougher to count because she skipped the aus open a lot so he made 18 out of 19 finals won 12 of them and people were talking about his getting to 20 slams kevin mitchell writing in guardian stated as a mater of fact this was federer s 16th slam there will be more joe drape in the ny times pondered by winning his fourth australian open federer may have his best opportunity to join don budge 1938 and rod laver 1962 69 in taking down the sport s holy grail a grand slam a sweep of the four major tournaments in the same year instead that title marked the end of the era knocked out in the quarter finals at both the french and wimbledon and losing in the semi finals to djokovic who at that time had won only 1 grand slam title and was about to start his own era just how much one era finished and a new one for djokovic began is evident from their respective grand slam performances after federer s win at the us open in 2012 he would win one more in the next 6 years in that time djokovic would win 11 out of 22 and then djokovic stopped injuries yes but when we compare federer and djokovic s performances by age rather than year it is less surprising federer s era ended when he turned 28 djokovic s when he turned 29 djokovic s drop off has been sharper because he suffered injuries unlike federer who did not miss a grand slam until the 2016 french open by which time he was already 34 4 years older the djokovic is now it shows the task ahead of djokovic unless something very odd happens he is never going to be as dominant as he was when he was from age 24 to 29 but he might be able to be as good which is what has happened with federer federer is not as dominant because he ll still get the odd back issue cf last year s us open and he ll generally skip the french open he hasn t played it since 2015 and i wonder if the next time he plays that tournament it will be because he is doing a bit of a farewell tour but he is as good the weird thing about federer s past 12 months is how after last year s australian open the titles have felt a bit anti climatic the wimbledon win was so by the numbers not dropping a set not really facing anyone dangerous cilic was but he was so hobbled in the final that is was not a fair fight that i didn t even bother to write a post about it and now he has won 20 titles so what does it all mean superlatives aplenty he probably has the most of any man sewn up nadal might get to 20 but no one else for djokovic to get to 20 would require not only his getting his game back a big call given how awful it was to watch him founder against chung in the 4th round but he needs to do so before the younger generation steps up as i always like to point out djokovic and even nadal are not really federer s contemporaries fed s peers hewitt safin roddick bowed out ages ago he has been playing against younger guys for most of his career now his wimbledon win against roddick was in 2009 since then he has really been playing against nadal djokovic and murray in their primes rather than them in his and those three are among the best three ever to play for federer to get to 20 he needed to win a stack before the younger mob especially djokovic worked out how to win now the younger gen of thiem kyrgios zverev are learning how to win they haven t really clicked at the slams yet but it can happen quickly when federer won his first slam title he had before that never been past the quarter finals and nadal clay freak that he is had never even made a quarter final in a slam before he won his first title but this time last year i suggested we were about to enter an era where there would be 3 or 4 different winners of slams each year that the past 5 have been federer nadal federer nadal federer does suggest a few things federer and nadal are freaks technology and strategy luck and injuries the depth of men s tennis is not great federer and nadal are really the only two in the contest for greatest male player of the open era so we can safety assume they are a bit out of the box different but they have been helped and have also adapted the technology means nadal is able to play the way he does for longer than would have been possible with the old racquets and strings federer too is not the same player he was when he won wimbledon in 2012 he has a bigger racquet and he is playing differently especially on the backhand the federer of 2018 would beat federer of 2012 a better backhand smarter use of serve volley more attacking return more emphasis on shorter points rather than stubbornly trying to beat djokovic murray and nadal at the baseline and both nadal and federer have been helped by injuries which to be fair they too have had recently but let s not put any asterisks on any of these wins that djokovic murray and wawrinka may have been injured is irrelevant you want to win at sport stay healthy and turn up richmond might have been helped by the crows having brodie smith and mitch mcgovern out injured for the grand final but so what best team on the day wins in 2008 federer had glandular fever when he lost to djokovic in the semis of the australian open that doesn t diminish djokovic s victory at all life it tough at the pinnacle of sport tore a hamstring got blisters pity so sad sorry someone else gets to win but the loss of djokovic murray and warinka to injuries much like the loss of federer in 2016 revealed that there is not much else there here are the men s finalists of the past 5 slams federer nadal cilic wawrinka anderson just five players that s not many taking advantage of all the injuries to top players here were the men s 3 8 seeds at the australian open and their best ever slam performance dimitrov sf zverev 4th thiem sf french cilic w goffin qf sock 4th that is not a murderer s row of players zverev is young so he gets a pass but dimitrov is now 26 and should be at or near his peak thiem is only 24 but outside of the paris clay he has not reached a quarter final goffin is 27 and as honest a player as you can get but 2 quarter finals in his entire career says it all really and sock might one day make a run somewhere but he is 0 8 against federer nadal and i doubt either of them cared too much whether he ended up in their half of the draw i could see dimitrov winning one zverev could will win a bundle thiem surely will crack it for the french open maybe even this year and cilic is every chance to add to his us open title but this was the men s top 8 seeds at the australian open two years ago and their best performances djokovic w murray w federer w wawrinka w nadal w berdych f nishikori f ferrer f now that was a line up and we re a long way from seeing its like federer has certainly improved his game the topspin backhand is a thing of beauty all federer fans wish he had been using throughout his career given how it has enabled him to beat nadal 4 times in a row last year but he is right when he said at the start of the tournament that a 36 year old should not be the favorite and neither for that matter should nadal at 31 year old where are the 24 28 year olds alas that group led by dimitrov raonic and nishikori have not been able to snag a slam title let alone look like reaching number 1 and the lack of real depth has meant federer and nadal have been able to grab a couple more titles at an age when they really shouldn t that djokovic murray and wawrinka have faltered due to injury age call it what you will is not all that surprising it is what happens usually what happens is the best players get older drop off and then the new guys come through it is exactly what happened to federer yes he beat sampras in the 2001 wimbledon 4th round but when he won his first grand slam title at the 2003 wimbledon sampras was retired and so too were the other best male grass court players pat rafter and goran ivanisevic agassi was still there but at 33 would never win another slam and only one more masters title here were the men s top 8 seeds of wimbledon that year hewitt agassi carlos ferrero federer roddick nalbandian coria shalken all except agassi and shalken were 20 23yo the time was ripe for a win from the younger brigade and federer did beating mark philippoussis who was having his last moment in the sun but on the way fedeer beat lee hyung taik older journeyman koubek older journeyman mardy fish same age feliciano lopez same age shalken older better journeyman roddick same age and then phillippousis who had taken out agassi so was in effect subbing in as the best player from the previous era so to win his first title federer mostly had to beat his peers and then beat just one of the very good older gang now the easy answer as to why the generation of 24 28 year olds has not broken through is that they keep hitting into the older top 4 5 who have stuck around longer and healthier than previous late 20s early 30s players but here is who dimitrov has lost to in grand slams since turning 23 before the 2015 wimbledon gasquet 3rd rd kukushkin 2nd federer 3rd troicki 1st johnson 3rd murray 4th nadal sf schwartzman 3rd federer 4th rublev 2nd edmund qf so yes out of 11 tournaments he has had to play federer twice and nadal and murray once but what about the others at last year s us open he came into the event having won his first masters title at cincinnati and then he lost to 19 year old rublev you can t blame the older guys for that nadal played rublev in the quarter finals rublev won a total of 5 games edmund who he lost to last week in the qf is younger than he is this is not to pick on dimitrov whom i love to watch play but at least milos raonic has lost to either murray nadal or federer in 4 of his past 8 grand slam tournaments most male players reach number 1 between the age of 21 and 25 there are only 4 players under 25 in the top 20 zverev thiem kyrgios and pouille at the grand slams they have 2 semi final and 4 quarter final appearances between them and the sfs are both thiem s since connors reached number 1 in 1974 there has been a pretty consistent turnover of new number 1 players in the world on average going from one player to someone born 18 months after they had been if that were to follow the next number 1 would be born around the middle of 1989 but that would make that player already 29 years old and the reality is while there is a general smooth increase in ages what usually happens is there is a bunching of players around the same age and then a jump to a new bunch of players who are 3 5 years younger connors borg give way to mcenroe lendl who give way to wilander edberg becker and on and on yes the older guys stick around a bit or some of the younger ones come a bit earlier than others but pretty much it holds so we should now be looking for an era of players who were born 4 5 years after nadal djokovic and murray players born in 1992 93 that is 24 26 year olds right now there are 4 players aged 24 25 or 26 in the top 10 dimitrov thiem sock and carreno busta but there are only 4 more in the rest of the top 50 federer and nadal are great players certainly but not only are they helped by their great ability they are also helped by there being a dearth of talent among the players who would normally be peaking right now it shouldn t be federer and nadal who are the ones taking advantage of injuries to djokovic murray and wawrinka now maybe that peak will occur at an older age and dimtrov et al will win a lot of slams from aged 27 30 my suspicion however is kyrgios zverev chung rublev shapavolov medvedev and others yet to turn 23 will not be so lacking in titles over the next 3 to 4 years they are young enough not to be thinking why oh why did fed nadal djokovic murray wawrinka have to be around when i was playing instead they are thinking get out of the way grandpa and so federer s 20th title is a great achievement it was one which i as an obscenely obsessive federer fan loved to watch but the sport needs new champions one reason talk about federer retiring has diminished is there is no reason for him to do so nothing makes a player feel older than getting beaten by players a decade or more younger than he or she is that s when you start thinking about how you re getting too old for this crap and right now federer is thinking he is still the right age so who is the greatest of all time whenever this question is asked generally the response is federer nadal and excuse me serena is i m not a big fan of comparing men and women against each other in sport i don t think it serves any good purpose i didn t watch the last olympics and think gee who is a better 100m runner usain bolt or elaine thompson karrie webb is certainly australia s most successful golfer of all time but does that make her the greatest it s one of those questions where if you answer yes you are admitting a few caveats ie she never beat any men and if you answer no you are assuming being greatest automatically means being male serena might have more slams but is she better in what sense is federer better if so is it not only because as a male he has inherent advantages that don t really go to who is the better player whatever that means that federer won last year after 6 months off after knee surgery was amazing that serena won while 2 months pregnant is unbelievable but i have no idea which is the greater achievement and i just can t see much worth in arguing either way but i can understand people getting pretty damn annoyed when you see media orgs write that federer is the first person to win 20 grand slams and i can also understand those who feel that the greatest of all time debate is always inherently about men it s not hard to say greatest male player or greatest woman player and maybe that is where is should stand not so good for the goat acronym though and to be honest i ll often say federer is the greatest of all time just as i ll often say serena is the greatest of all time without any gender adjective such as i did here it is hard enough to compare federer with nadal given nadal s better head to head record but federer s better performance on non clay 11 8 on hardcourt there are three masters events on clay none on grass would not federer s head to head record be better were that not the case on the women s side it is even harder to compare the three greatest of the open era serena steffi graf and martina navratalova who played in the era of more depth whose record is better serena has 23 slam titles but steffi was number 1 for 55 more weeks than serena has been and she retired when she had just turned 30 so wi...