Men Who Stare at Tennis GOATS Part 5 – The Usual Suspects: Rafael Nadal

Part 1 Laid out Key Questions Part 2 Looked at Bjorn Borg’s Credentials and the Difficulties of the GOAT Debate Part 3 Looked at Pete Sampras’ Credentials Part 4 Looked at Roger Federer’s Credentials Rafael Nadal Why Rafael Nadal Might be the GOAT – Rafa’s claim to the GOAT title revolves around three areas of…

Power Ranking for the Week of May 14 – May 20

Dan Martin’s 2012 Power Rankings for the Week of May 14 through May 20 (a lot of changes from the last few weeks) 1.  Novak Djokovic – Novak is the number one player in the world, but the next few months will be interesting. 2. Roger Federer – Titles in Dubai, Rotterdam, Indian Wells and Madrid…

Youtube Tennis for March 20 – March 24

1. Steffi Graf’s 1988 Golden Slam 2.  Jim Courier vs. Andre Agassi at the 1991 French Open 3.  Guga Kuerten vs. Pete Sampras at Miami 2000 4.  Guga vs. Agassi – 2000 Year End Championships

Men Who Stare at Tennis GOATS Part 1

Part 1 – Arriving at the Relevant Questions A Question from California Shortly after Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in the 2012 Australian Open semifinal round, I was asked how I thought Roger Federer’s record against Rafael Nadal impacted his arguable status as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT). Federer winning only one third of…

Youtube Tennis for the Week of 12-4-11 through 12-10-11

4 Good Tennis Videos  In honor of Davis Cup, it will be all Spanish and Argentine players featured this week. 1.  Rafael Nadal vs. Juan Martin del Potro Davis Cup 2011 2.  David Ferrer vs. Rafael Nadal Australian Open 2011 3.  Guillermo Vilas winning the 1977 French Open 4.  David Nalbandian vs. Andy Roddick 2006…

Lendl and Sampras’ Impact on Federer’s 6 Year End Championships

A Major Accomplishment Winning 6 Masters/ATP World Championships/Masters Cups/World Tour Finals (Year End Championships hereafter)* is not an accomplishment on the same level as winning 16 Grand Slams.  It is however no small task.  To win a tournament that is only comprised of elite players is difficult.  To win a tournament in which one has…

The Big 4 Play Risk

Global Domination With the top 4 players in the  world sweeping all 4 Grand Slam titles and all 9 Masters 1000 events, it is clear that a gap exists between the top 4 and the rest of the tour.  In fact, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Ferrer were the only 2 players outside of the big…