A Djokovic Australian Open victory would seal his GOAT status

Coming from country where people aren't supposed to play tennis He is the best ever SOB talking 11 languages Our favorites look bad and dumb Let's hate him

Deliberately infecting kids, what an a hole. Stick your 21 titles up your Covid a hole because you are just one arrogant billionaire with no love for anyone else. Why would you want to watch this bloke. The GOAT of a holes

Yeah, PW. I thought it sounded familiar. I googled it and found that a groat was worth four pence. Of course that’s an English one not a Serbian one.

Thanks for that matth. It’s so good to see somebody here just laying out some information without trying to whack us over the head with their opinion. I’m able to assess things for myself and form my own opinion. Something that bothers me about the argument about the “greatest” player of all time is that there is no real definition of what greatest means. You’ve touched on it. It could mean any of: Who has played the greatest match of all time? Who had the best consecutive performances? Who would most people like to watch? Who would the other players least like to play? Who won the most tournaments or matches or sets or points? It could even be who won the most majors. I think it is way too simple just to count how many majors players have won - as you point out, some players had less opportunity because of the state of the game - amateur/pro/open era, war, travel in past eras. For what it’s worth the best player I’ve ever seen was Lew Hoad, but he developed major back problems which reduced his opportunities.

Yeah & if Federer didn’t suffer so many injuries Djokovic wouldn’t come close to Goat….well maybe a mountain goat! Federer will always be the GOAT….

Djokovic will never be remembered in the same class as Federer or Nadal, no matter his achievements. Serbian master Lolol. What a joke. Both Federer & Nadal leave this self centred player in their wake. When people talk about greatest of all time Djokovic will always be remembered as ‘that other guy’…..

A Serbian goat sounds like a medieval currency

Without spending too much time on it, Laver won the slam as an amateur, went to the professional ranks and was the greatest player there for 7 years, then returned to the combined tour and won the slam again, showing that where he had been playing was much the stronger side of tennis at the time and he was the master of it. During 7 years on the pro circuit before they came back together Laver won the US Professional Tennis Championships 5 times, including four in a row. He won the premier British tournament, the Wembley Pro four times as well as the Wimbledon pro. He won the French professional championships twice. In 1967 he won the four ‘majors’ on the pro circuit to complete a grand slam, remembering he has two already and no other player has done it at all in either the amateur, professional or combined ranks. If you add up his amateur, professional a combined majors he gets to 20, even with other greats such as Rosewell and Gonzales to oppose him (both criminally underrated due to the professional split). Laver reached the final of 14 consecutive ‘major’ titles while a professional. He won the most overall tournaments during that era. Between 1962 and 1969 he failed to make the final of whatever ‘major’ he was entered in (whether amateur, professional or combined) only twice. Undisputed number 1 player from 1962 to 1970, except possibly 1963 when shaded by Rosewell. Given Laver did all this between 1962 and 1969 he makes a great case as the GOAT. The one thing against him is in that era with a less scientific fitness approach, he couldn’t maintain those standards for 15-19 years that the Big 3 have been able to. After 1969, Laver never played a full season again. Laver won all grand slam tournaments in a year twice. No one else has done it. He also did it in the pro ranks in one year. Therefore you’d have to say he was the most dominant in his peak years. Then you have Rafa who is the most dominant on a single surface by far, as well and long term excellence on other surfaces. Federer so had a peak almost as dominant as Laver and has then maintained the rage for 19 years. Novak is almost a combination of them all, not quite as high a peak, but that’s doubtful as he did hold all four at one point. not quite as long a period of excellence, but it likely will be before the end.

Still Rod Laver for me, but if Djoker wins another slam he will be the generally accepted best of the current era.

I know, it's disappointing the eds deleted it. My response to your comment is still visible in my profile, so I encourage you to read it there. I'm guessing they deleted your comment because it's dangerous, fact-free nonsense.

Yes it would. People have always been stating that the amount of grand slams you win defines your career (or majors in golf for that matter) but as soon as someone they don’t like comes along they start adding in all these little variables.

I agree if GOAT in this case stands for Greatest of All Tools. His behaviour and disregard for others (not going into the mess ABF has created in the last few days) during the health panedemic has been disgraceful. He is brilliant on the court, but a total tool off it.

Look at that , like magic it's gone, why so fearful of anything contrary to the narrative.

Yawn. 1. Research isn't reading stuff off facebook or whatever source is not the mainstream narrative. Research is collecting data, analysing it appropriately and drawing conclusions. It's what researchers do and thankfully, the mainstream press report that. Stop deluding yourself that you do research. 2. At the time of the Adria Tour, Serbia had a case fatality rate around 2% and Croatia was around 4%. Those are astronomically high. He organised the tour against the advice of every legitimate medical association on the planet, and made it happen without covid safety protocols at a time when those two countries had massive case fatality rates. That makes him a bad person. 3. The young and healthy don't get vaccinated against a respiratory disease to protect themselves. They do it to protect others, specifically the old and vulnerable. I'm not someone who thinks we should lock away the elderly and vulnerable. Nor am I one who thinks their deaths don't matter cos they are gonna die soon anyway. I think we should all do everything we can to protect them and each other. It's why I get the flu vaccine every year and why I got boosted. Not doing that for a once in a century pandemic and then getting around without a mask and without social distancing, makes anyone a bad person. 3. Your statement that the contents of the covid vaccines are untested and unapproved is clearly a lie.

No it wouldnt . The question over Djokovic is when Federer was under 30 and Nadal when his body was in good condition, Djokovic only had one title. There are other candidates outside the big three of the modern era, in the past though the best players didnt play grand slams. As I have estimated before the other big three Gonzales, Rosewall, Laver could have had 20-30 grand slams each. Margaret Court is clearly the GOAT for women , and vilified for a lot less. Djokovic as an antivaxer has pretty much stuffed up his chances of getting any positive recognition. In terms of GOAT candidates for men Bill Tilden was a paedophile so one is a lot worse than Djokovic.

I used to love Novak's public persona. He was a fun bloke, I enjoyed his light hearted approach at different times like the impersonations he did of his fellow players. His determination on the court has always been evident and admirable. I now detest him for his selfishness throughout the pandemic. His disregard for the health of others, evidenced first by his anti vaccination stance and second by the tennis events he organised in 2020, show me that he is simply a bad person. Absolutely no doubt though, that he is already the GOAT.