The Tennis "GOATS"

My friend Josh of Josh's World and I collaborated on this post about the best modern male tennis players. This all stemmed from Novak Djokovic winning his 10th Australian Open and his 22nd Grand Slam and Cory Giger, the Penn State University beat writer for DKPIttsburghSports, to post this tweet:

While I'll give Cory the benefit of the doubt that he means the best men's player, it's the last sentence that bothered both me and Josh. Is Djokovic the GOAT? Maybe. Probably. To unilaterally declare him the GOAT and write that it's silly to deny this is in my opinion, silly. Rod Laver won all four Grand Slams in a single year twice, but since he's before our time, I guess that means he's automatically out of the conversation. I mean, it's absolutely silly to consider anyone from the 60s better than modern-day players. I'm sure that's why people say that Bryan Reynolds is better than Willie Mays. What about Rafael Nadal? He has the same amount of Grand Slams as Djokovic, but what makes Nadal unique is that he's a clay-court specialist. Clay-court specialists aren't supposed to win 8 other Grand Slam events. Nadal is also the younger player in the Open Era to win all four majors and has two gold medals, one from the 2008 Olympics in singles and a second from the 2016 Olympics in doubles. On the topic of doubles, Nadal has 11 career ATP doubles titles while Djokovic has just one more doubles titles than Cory. Oh, Djokovic is 30-29 all time against Nadal. Yeah, that's clearly one-sided and makes him the GOAT, right? Why don't we get really silly here and say that Carlos Alcaraz is the GOAT since he's undefeated against Novak? Sure, it's only one win, but Djokovic has never won against arguably the best young player in the world.  But who is the GOAT? Josh and I decided to settle this debate once and for all. Naturally there are caveats. As I wrote, Rod Laver won all four Grand Slams in the same year, twice. He played in the 1960s. Tennis was a totally different sport then. If you sent Jack Sock (currently ranked #141) back to that era, he probably dominates. Players now are just bigger, stronger, faster than back then. Plus the equipment is incredibly better. That means we have to break this into time periods. We are looking at the top ten greatest players of the modern era. We did not have a specific year, but it felt like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Björn Borg were the last players from the pre-modern era (also it may be fun to do that top ten list sometime). Sean’s Note: I just want to share my objection that McEnroe and Conners aren’t on this list for being considered a different era!

Honorable Mention There are three players who are so close to being in the top ten, but they just did not have the resume. -Goran Ivanišević-He won one Grand Slam, while being runner-up three times. He played evenly with many players in the top ten, minus Pete Sampras. He has also been Djokovic's coach since 2019. -Andy Roddick-Another guy who just played during the wrong time. One Grand Slam, five time runner-up. He just never fared well against Roger Federer (3-21), but at least he had a winning record against Djokovic (5-4). -Michael Chang--The youngest to ever win a Grand Slam. He was 17 years 3 months when he won the French Open. Chang was runner-up three times, and like the other two, he just could not win against the other guys on the list.  #10 - Boris Becker

Josh: Boris Becker is probably the guy most fans hated back in the day. It was always nice to root against him when he faced off against Agassi or Sampras. He probably helped kick off the youth movement that ushered in a few of the other guys on this list. He had a powerful serve, and always seemed to be everywhere on the court.

#9: Jim Courier

Sean: I remember hearing a story about a US Olympic athlete being at the opening ceremonies right by the Dream Team. He was going to share his amazement at being next to legendary basketball players like Jordan and Bird to another Olympian, only to discover that that Olympian was Jim Courier. This story might be completely made up and I don’t know who it was, but it’s still fun. #8: Andy Murray

Sean: Andy Murray is fascinating. If he played 10 years earlier, he might have 8+ Grand Slams. Instead, he seemingly could never beat Djokovic, Federer, or Nadal in a big match. He also hasn’t been able to stay healthier than his compatriots. He’s exactly one week older than Djokovic and one year younger than Nadal, but he seems much older and doesn’t come close to threatening to win a Grand Slam. #7: Stefan Edberg

Josh: The only think I remember about Stefan Edberg is that he did not have the hardest serve, and that he played an older style with more spin. But he was athletic and managed to be all over the court after he served.

#6: Ivan Lendl 

Josh: Much to Sean’s chagrin, I made a decision to include Lendl and a few others, but cut off McEnroe, Conners, and Borg. My weird cutoff was players born after 1960. Lendl played against those guys, and he had a great record against them, and then was still good against the guys after him. Probably why he is called the “Father of Modern Tennis.” 

#5: Andre Agassi

Josh: Andre Agassi was my favorite back in the day. My uncle is the one who got me into tennis, and he was an Agassi fan. Oddly enough, my parents also loved Andre Agassi. I felt like back then that it was a fairly even match between him and Pete Sampras, but looking at the stats, it is clear that I was fooling myself back then. #4: Pete Sampras

Sean: Sampras was my favorite. While Agassi was flashy and exciting, I gravitated to Sampras who just went out there and won. Josh: I think you can figure out who the top three are, and honestly, I think you can make an argument for any of them to be number one. 

#3 Rafael Nadal

Josh: I have always loved watching Nadal play. I think it is the fact that he wears gym shorts and cut-off shirts, while Roger would be rocking a sweater polo. I also love how dominant he is on clay. He has won the French Open four times without losing a set. He is 112-3 there, so impressive. Sean: Nadal is my favorite of the top 3. I would put him at #1 just because I like him more than Federer and a lot more than Djokovic. #2: Roger Federer

Josh: There was a period of time where I barely watched any tennis, I would say it was when Agassi and Sampras were waning in their careers. The only event I watched each year was Wimbledon, and I remember seeing the rise of Federer, and after he won five in a row, I just assumed he was the best in the world. A few years later I started watching more and realized the men’s circuit was at another level.  #1: Novak Djokovic

Sean: I think Djokovic is a jerk. He got disqualified from the US Open for hitting a linesperson with a ball. I know it was an accident, but that’s not going to happen to anyone else on this list. He got deported from Australia for breaching the country’s border rules. He called out Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles after their open mental health challenges during the Tokyo Olympics, and then had his own meltdown throwing and breaking a racket in the bronze medal match (which he lost). Yes, he’s the best ever, but I don’t have to like him. Josh: Djokovic has a winning record against Nadal and Federer. He can win on any surface. In 2021, he even beat Nadal at the French Open, something that seemed almost impossible. Sean is correct, Novak is a jerk, but this is not a list of top ten nicest guys in tennis, Sean's final note: Josh really did the heavy lifting on this post. He did significant research looking at head-to-head match-ups, career titles, and made the rankings. (There's data to show his work if you really want to see it.) Josh also got all of the pictures (free photos via wikicommons) and put together all of the graphics. I really just shared the introduction and added occasional thoughts.

Joe Haden and Roger Federer

Although Joe Haden is a free agent and not currently a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I think he qualifies for a brand new edition of PAWRA! If you're not familiar with PAWRA (and why would you since I haven't had a PAWRA post in over 3 years), PAWRA is Pittsburgh Athletes with World-Renowned Athletes, just another of my many popular series (serieses?). Joe Haden is in Paris and apparently ran into Roger Federer, only one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

I reached out to Haden to see how and where he met Federer (presumably at the French Open or at an event associated with the French Open), but he's on vacation and surprisingly did not respond to my random question on Twitter. I don't know the identity of the person on the left in this picture.

Photo from Joe Haden's Twitter page.

Message To The US Open

Dear US Open,

First, let me congratulate you on another exciting US Open. Now that I got the obligatory nice sentence out of the way, let’s get down to business. I wrote you several years ago about your silly final set tie-breaker system. With Andy Roddick retiring after this year’s tournament, do you know the match I’ll remember him most? That would be the 2009 Wimbledon final where Roddick lost to Roger Federer 16-14 in the fifth set. What an amazing match that could never occur at your tournament. You have your reasons as to why you keep the final set tie-breaker unlike the other three Grand Slam tournaments which is why I want you to consider changing the bracket for next year’s tournament. Let’s take a look at this year’s men's bracket, shall we?

If the higher seeds advance, the semi-finals will feature #1 Roger Federer vs. #3 Andy Murray and #2 Novak Djokovic vs. #4 David Ferrer. Now Ferrer is a very good player, but I’m sure that Djokovic would much rather face Ferrer than Murray. I don’t necessarily want Federer to win, but it seems unfair to me that he, as the #1 seed, should face the #3 seed in the semi-final. That is a huge disadvantage!

Now, US Open, I’m pretty sure that the other Grand Slam tournaments have similar brackets. Therefore, be different and seed arrange the bracket so that the semi-finals feature #1 vs. #4 and #2 vs. #3 like any other non-tennis tournament.

Sincerely,
Sean

P.S. For this suggestion, I'd be happy to accept tickets, airfare (or a train ticket from DC) and a hotel for next year's tournament.

My First Figure Skating Blog Post

It's the middle of August with the Pittsburgh Pirates in playoff contention and the NFL regular season only a few weeks away. So this is a perfect opportunity to write about, um, figure skating. The London Olympics concluding recently, and the biggest "stars" to emerge from the Olympics were Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, and Gabby Douglas. What do these Olympians have in common? They all won multiple gold medals. This got me thinking about figure skating. While this sport is always one of the most watched during the Winter Olympics, I wondered if the figure skaters ever got upset at not having the opportunity to win multiple medals like their gymnastics, swimming and track counterparts. I proposed this idea to two friends who are HUGE figure skating fans. We'll call them Kelly and Marino since they are also Bills and Dolphins fans respectively.

Sean: I assume that you're following the Olympics and the gymnastics competition. I'm sure that you saw Gabby Douglas win two gold medals, one for the individual all-around and the other for the team competition. In addition, Aly Raisman won three medals, gold in the team competition and floor exercise and bronze on the beam. These two gymnasts now have as many or more Olympic medals than arguably the greatest American figure skater, Michelle Kwan (silver in 1998 & bronze in 2002). While Kwan has done quite well for herself off the ice including some type of Royal Caribbean competition with Greg Louganis, do you think she should have more medals? Let me put this another way, should she have had the opportunity to win more medals?

In gymnastics, you can win a team medal and several different individual ones. Should figure skating have this? Why not a team figure skating competition? Why not separate events for the short program, long program, that silly figure 8 thing they used to have, lutz and Salchow. (I had to look up the spelling of Salchow. Who knew that the H is silent?) Feel free to call me an idiot for these suggestions if warranted.

Kelly: I do think it would be cool to have a team event for figure skating, nation against nation. But since the skaters are doing the very same routines over and over again, I don't see the need to have separate events like you do in gymnastics, where there are individual apparatus events, in addition to the all-around, and team competition. Since FS did away with compulsories (those silly Figure 8's, as you call them), I don't see them bringing them back. The only growth I could see in terms of adding another event would be Team Synchronized Skating (which they do have) as there is precedent for this with synchronized swimming.

I know it's been done, but it really doesn't seem right that events like synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline (!) are in while baseball, softball and golf are out (although coming eventually, right?).

I think a better analogy for Michelle Kwan's Olympic results is Roger Federer. You can argue that both are the GOATs of their sport, and neither have gold (unless you want to count Fed's doubles gold with Stan Warwrinka in 98). For GOATs, nothing but gold is acceptable. You can't blame Roger for this time around, he went 19-17 in the third against Del Potro. In Beijing, he lost early to Berdych. Kwan played it conservatively and got surpassed by jumping beans/tiny mites in the long program.

Kelly (again before I was able to reply): Got the skinny from someone in the know:

There is now a team skating competition (men (2), ladies (2), pairs (1) and dance (1) all represented), not a group of ladies and men like in gymnastics though. It’s held after worlds now and it will be included in the Olympics in two years! It should be interesting to see how this added event changes the dynamic of the individual events. The format is still being decided (if the team event will occur before the individual events, etc). Clearly the main focus is still the individual events so I wonder if some of the big named players will back out of the team event based on results from the individual events. Hey – its another chance to watch skating and for the skaters to win a medal. Pretty neat.

Also, after watching some of the rhythmic gymnastics yesterday (which is easy to make fun of, until you watch those girls perform!) I do believe there could be a category for cheerleading at the Olympics. If there international participation level were there. Think about it. Those girls are athletes just like synchronized swimmers or rhythmic gymnasts (aka Cirque du Soleil training grounds). Then, we could pave the way for drum corps to be part of the Olympics, too. Anyone who has been in marching band would agree that there is equal amounts of athleticism and artistry in drum corps. OK, I realize this'll never happen.

Sean: Interesting that figure skating is considering a team event. I think the top skaters would enter for a chance to win more medals. Someone the caliber of Kwan probably wouldn't participate in the pairs or dance event, but I think they would also compete in the individual portion of the team competition.

Before you sent me the e-mail, though, I wanted to reply to your comment about skaters doing the same routines over and over rather than the separate events gymnasts compete in using different apparatuses. I have suggestions! 1. Spinning competition. Specifically, who can do the most spins in 20 seconds? They go so fast, so you might as well see who does the most in a specific period of time. 2. Obstacle course. I don't know the format since it's not speed skating, but maybe the skaters have to skate a routine with various obstacles on the ice. 3. Hardest slap shot. This is fun in the NHL skills competition, so why not see how fast 90-pound figure skaters can shoot a puck.

Between the current individual competition, possible team competition, compulsories (figure 8s) and my other three ideas, figure skaters could earn up to 6 medals! Please propose this idea to the person you know that is in the know!

Besides using cheerleaders at some events in London (ex. beach volleyball), is cheerleading really big around the world? Since baseball and softball are no longer in the Olympics, is cheerleading more popular that these sports globally?

Marino: I am just catching up on personal e-mail and this whole conversation had me giggling my head off.

You have to think about Michelle Kwan in terms of winning 9 national titles. There will NEVER be a gymnast that has the endurance to come to 9 separate national championships and win medals at each one at the elite level.

I don't think there should be separate things like a spinning comp. And I agree with Kelly about cheerleading being a sport, and should be at the Olympics, the same way I would encourage dance to be there too. Dance would be like gymnastics with ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, etc.

Kelly: to Marino's point, Nastia Lukin, the defending All-Around champ, didn't even MAKE this year's US squad.

I would support Marino's motion to add dance to the Olympics. Competitive ballet? Bring it on!!!

Sean: With the introduction of dance, I think we've ended this conversation. The Olympics would be just like one of those Step Up movies! Why not go with chess, Scrabble and Connect 4 as Olympic sports too?

Marino: oooh yeah they could dance battle like the Step Up movies. I love those movies, [my husband] hates them. He categorized all dance movies this weekend as: 'someone is poor, needs a lot of money, discovers they can dance, finds other people who can dance with them that are also poor, magically there is a dance contest where they can win a lot of money, they enter the contest and win.' :)

The conversation dissolved even further from there. Anyway, the morale of the story: It looks like the Figure Skating Organization listened to me, although it would be nice if they added a hardest slap shot competition among the figure skaters!

Get Me Gael Monfils

On Sunday, Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic defeated France's Gael Monfils in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic final here in Washington DC. However, the point of this post has nothing to do with any tennis action on the court.

The video below is for the song Hello by Martin Solveig & Dragonette. While it is likely that you've never heard of Martin Solveig and/or Dragonette, there's a good chance that you've heard this catchy song.



You may have noticed that this cool video features cameo appearances by #1-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic and the aforementioned Gael Monfils. This brings the obvious question: Why Gael Monfils? I can just see the casting director going through the World Tennis rankings and being ecstatic at landing Djokovic to be part of the video. Sure, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal said no, but there are other top players, right? England's Andy Murray passed and Andy Roddick is busy being married to Brooklyn Decker, so now there's a little concern.



The producer inquired about contacting Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi but the director wants a current male player. Uh oh. Maybe 5th-ranked Robin Soderling who reached the French Open finals twice would be interested. No he has another engagement.

Then the casting director had a brilliant idea to get the injury-prone 7th ranked player in the world, Gael Monfils. He's almost a household name based on his semifinal appearance in the 2008 French Open. Monfils was shocked by the invitation, but quickly accepted.

Jake Gyllenhaal: Music Video Superstar

I hereby nominate Jake Gyllenhaal to join the Eric Roberts Music Video Superstar club. You're not familiar with Eric Roberts and his music video superstardom? I wrote a post about this (um, nearly five years ago)!

For his role in Jamie Foxx's "Blame It" and Vampire Weekend's "Giving Up The Gun," Jake Gyllenhaal has had a nice run lately starring in music videos. Watch as he expertly raises his glass with Forest Whitaker and Ron Howard.



What an actor to pull off the tennis grace of Roger Federer.



I applaud Gyllenhaal for his dedication to the small screen and to be able to laugh at himself. I hope others will follow the lead of Eric and Jake, so that I don't have to wait another five years to add another member to the Music Video Superstar club!

Message to the USTA (Take 2)

Dear United States Tennis Association,

My name is Sean, and I am a tennis fan. My father played in college and taught me how to play when I was young. I was a member of my high school tennis team, and although I have not touched my tennis racket in nearly a year, I enjoy following and watching the Grand Slam events.

Naturally, I watched Sunday’s Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. With the match tied at 6-6 in the fifth set, I thought to myself, I would love to see a tiebreaker right now. As the match continued with Roddick and Federer tied at 8-8, 11-11, and 14-14, I thought, this is terrible and lacking drama; I would much rather have seen the match end 30-60 minutes ago via a tiebreaker.

I hope that you can sense my sarcasm in the last paragraph. If the Federer-Roddick match took place at the US Open, it would have ended with a fifth set tiebreaker. The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament with this format. I mentioned my displeasure with the fifth set tiebreaker before, but maybe you weren’t reading my blog at that time. Based on Sunday’s exciting Wimbledon final, I think it’s time to reconsider how US Open matches conclude. Get rid of the fifth set tiebreaker (or third set on the women’s side) and follow the lead of your Grand Slam compatriots!

Sincerely,
Sean


P.S. The semi-final match between Elena Dementieva and Serena Williams that ended with an 8-6 final set was also lousy!

Message to the USTA

Earlier today (depending on where you live – I think), Roger Federer defeated the 49th-ranked Janko Tipsarevic 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open. It sounds like it was an amazing match, which unfortunately I missed because I was asleep. Anyway, perhaps you noticed the final score of the fifth set: 10-8. There was so much drama, tension and energy on every point. I’m sure the crowd went crazy. However, this type of ending could never happen at the US Open. You see, as I mentioned in September, if the score is tied 6-6 at the end of the third set in a women’s match or fifth set in a men’s match, the winner is determined by a tie-breaker. What a terrible way to end a match! If anyone at the USTA, United States Tennis Association, is reading this, please change the US Open to follow the same format as the other three tennis majors. Thank you.

P.S. The fourth set of the Lleyton Hewitt-Marcos Baghdatis match airing live on ESPN2 is also amazing, especially since they are playing at 3:30 AM Melbourne time.

Sean’s Sports Update

While the Pittsburgh Steelers are my primary sports focus this time of year, there are other teams that I also closely follow. Unfortunately, most of them are not doing very well. Yesterday, Ithaca College’s football team lost 37-16 against #6 St. John’s Fisher. This loss coupled with last week’s defeat against Hartwick (the Bombers first loss to Hartwick since 1946!) leaves the team only 2-2 and 0-2 in the Empire 8 conference. Things need to change quickly if the Bombers have any chance at reaching the postseason.

Another team that has virtually no chance to reach a bowl game is the Pitt Panthers after losing 34-14 at home against the University of Connecticut. Pitt still needs to play West Virginia, Rutgers, South Florida, Virginia and Louisville, so a winning record does not seem likely. With Syracuse’s win over Louisville, Pitt may very well be the worst team in the Big East.

Finally, the Woodland Hills High School football team, whose alumni include current NFL players Jason Taylor, Shawntae Spencer, Steve Breaston and Lousaka Polite, is 0-4 for the first time in 21 years.

The one bright spot is Ithaca College’s women’s tennis team. They are 5-0 and look at these scores against their biggest rival, Cortland State:

Singles competition
1. Melanie COHEN (IC) def. Meg Cole (CORT) 6-2, 6-1
2. Rachel GUNDERSON (IC) def. Amanda McElroy (CORT) 6-0, 6-0
3. Alyssa JAFFE (IC) def. Merchon Brower (CORT) 6-0, 6-0
4. Devra REIMAN (IC) def. Ariel Kelner (CORT) 6-0, 6-1
5. Sarah HOLLIS (IC) def. Katie Freeman (CORT) 6-0, 6-1
6. Natalie JENERESKI (IC) def. Lauren Funes (CORT) 6-0, 6-0

Doubles competition
1. Alyssa JAFFE/Devra REIMAN (IC) def. Meg Cole/Amanda McElroy (CORT) 8-2
2. Melanie COHEN/Melissa NUNEZ (IC) def. Merchon Brower/Ariel Kelner (CORT) 8-1
3. Rachel GUNDERSON/Natalie JENERESKI (IC) def. Katie Freeman/Jennifer Carlisi (CORT) 8-1

The scores from the singles matches are similar to what would happen if I ever played Roger Federer, (we’ll just assume that Federer is off the court shooting Gillette commercials with Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry for games that I win).

Three hours until the Steelers-San Francisco game!

US Open Questions

Why did last night’s match between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick start after 10:00 pm? It was almost 11:00 when Federer won the first set tie-break, which was also the same time I turned off the television to go to sleep.

Federer is, obviously, the #1 seed at the US Open; Roddick was the #5 seed. So why were they meeting in the quarterfinals? Shouldn’t the #1 seed face the #8 seed in the quarters with the #4 seed playing the #5 seed assuming that the top seeds advance? #1 should not face #5 until the semifinals.

Finally, will the US Open ever change its format so that the final set doesn’t end in a tie-breaker? This is one of my pet peeves in sports along with a shoot-out to end World Cup soccer matches. If it’s tied 6-6 in the third set in a women’s match or fifth set in a men’s match, they should keep going until someone wins by two games. If someone wins the final set 20-18, that just makes for exciting tennis. Just the other day, Venus Williams defeated Jelena Jankovic 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). I could be wrong but I don’t believe that Wimbledon, the French Open or the Australian Open end this way.

Tennis Uniforms

I watched a few hours of the US Open on Saturday and was really impressed with the young Americans John Isner and Donald Young. Isner took a set from Roger Federer, which is nearly impossible to do unless your name is Rafael Nadal. The 18 year-old Young also played very well in a tough four-set loss to Feliciano Lopez. It looks like there are finally some quality American players besides Andy Roddick and James Blake.

The one part of the matches that has bothered me is the fact that Isner, Young and Lopez all wore the same Nike shirt and shorts (check out the pictures below). It’s like they are all on the same high school tennis team and were required to wear these uniforms by team rules. Do the players have any say into this or are they just happy that Nike is provided them with the clothing? I guess they do have the option of wearing a hat or headband.

Random Links

Fergie is coming to Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax. No, I’m not kidding. (Click on the meet Fergie tab.) Here’s your chance to challenge Fergie to a spelling contest! She will be at Verizon Experience store at 3:00pm on Tuesday, May 29.

Good luck to the Ithaca College Women’s Crew team at the NCAA Rowing Championships!

I admit that I’m not as devoted of a Lost fan as most other followers, but the season finale on Wednesday was really, really good. Here’s a good recap of all things Lost. Please note that most of the theories are way above me.

Fourteen Ithaca College students of the a cappella group Ithacappella, some of them seniors skipping their own graduation ceremony, opened the set of an Incubus concert in LA. Here’s the article; here’s the YouTube video.

Roger Federer and Pete Sampras will meet in an exhibition match in Kuala Lumpur as part of Malaysia’s 50th anniversary of independence celebrations. I’m guessing that they will both receive nice paychecks. It would be an especially interesting match if the Pete Sampras of eight years ago could play today’s Federer.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!