Quote:
Originally Posted by spiteface
He was seeded #1 four times due to the fact that he has suffered the most time off out of all the "big four" players on tour prior to last year. Don't forget he has ended as year-end world #1 four times. The argument that he can't even be seeded #1 at RG is senseless and baseless... it's grasping for straws. And then you say the H2H argument is weak..??  It definitely is not gonna give Rafa the edge now but if he catches Roger's 20, you and I both know that stat will tip the scale in Rafa's favor.
Roger has 11 slams on hard courts, so take those away and you're left with what.. 9 slams with only 1 on clay, there is definitely no variety in that statistic. Further to that, 2 of the 4 grand slams a year are being held on hard courts. What would Roger fans be saying if there were 2 clay grand slams per year?
The GOAT debate is without a doubt between Roger and Rafa, and at the moment Roger is the GOAT, but if Rafa were to catch him and surpass him regardless of where he does that, Rafa will be just as deserving as the title as Roger. |
To the first part of the bolded, now you've changed it so you take away 50% of all majors instead of just 25%. So let's do that and take away Roger's top 2 which puts him at 6 total. Nadal is now down to 3. As to "what if there was another clay major"? Well let's not kid ourselves, the sport would be in huge trouble if the already boring clay season were extended. No one likes clay except Rafa fans, slow, plodding, boring matches with usually far more errors than winners. Fans like excitement and action. Clay is not that.
And it's worth remembering that Rafa's injuries aren't flukes, they are driven by his grueling style of play and yes, playing too much on clay. We all know clay is the most physically demanding surface. Roger never got hurt despite playing an extensive clay career until 2016, because he plays smarter and faster. Nadal shouldn't be given a free excuse because he brutalized his own body.