An hour or so after Roger Federer lost to Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open semifinals, my close buddy Graeme Mackinnon wrote this commentary from Australia:
NY will have to wait another year… but will it happen ever?
It is 9am here and the news is just through that the rivalry of R&R will be on hold for another Grand Slam. So will Rafa open his Open account in New York and claim the biggest apple they have for tennis there. If Rafa will win I suppose the inevitable of will he overtake Roger in the number of Open wins in the future will be ignited again.
Rafa is clearly several rungs above the pretenders. Djokovic and Murray have not rattled the cage consistently enough to believe that Rafa would be troubled in the majority of games he plays against them. Only Roger we believe will give us a classic match. But given Rafa’s record (14-7) against Roger would he be shaking in his nike tennis shoes?
Again the debate of whether there are chinks beginning to appear in the armor of Roger’s invincibility will again be ignited after this weekend. Only time will tell if Roger has won his last Open tournament. Rafa (with age on his side and if he stays fit) will be as relentless as he is in his games in his pursuit of Roger’s record number of Open’s wins. But the indisputable fact will be that for those lucky enough to have witnessed both Roger and Rafa during their careers, there will be debates (another one?) as to who is the GOAT or would there be a consensus to call them co-GOATS. I think if Rafa does eventually equal or gets near either way there would be a compelling case as they are so unique in their techniques and have brought so much theater to tennis.
Interesting times ahead both on and off the court John. Now given my terrible tipping record I have most probably put the hex on Rafa and Djokovic will blow him away, but I wouldn’t bet on that either.
Regards
Graeme
