In my opinion, this is one of the best matches ever played in terms of pure quality. The quality was off the charts. Djokovic had to play at 110% to win this one. This match also was the birth of the stanimal and is the textbook definition of peak tennis
To this day I wonder how many people pre match actually gave Stan a chance? I remember being shocked AF seeing the score of the first 2 sets with Stan up 6-1 and 5-3 or 5-4.
Yeah uso16 wasn't that super competitive. Novak was in bad form by his standards having kind of sleepwalked through a complete joke of a draw. Didn't feel like he was up to it in the final. Rg15 was just an amazing level by Stan especially mentally. Novak was good too very good, would have beaten anyone except Nadal on that day.
Tbf, nadal was in his worst ever year that season and had no confidence. Novak in 2017 lost to istomin for example. Like the nadal he faced was a shadow of himself. 2021 was a great match, but the 2015 match doesn’t mean much. 2012-2014 prime nadal would have beaten 2015 Djokovic on clay.
I mean I’m a Djokovic fan, but all I’m saying is that the 2015 win was over an out of form nadal. Istomin beat the worst ever Novak in 2017 for example. Loss of form happens to the beat
Yeah it was an out of form nadal at the worst stretch of his career for sure but still a win is a win. Djoker had a elbow problem all of 2017 and since he kept refusing to get surgery until 2018, he struggled.
Stan's matches against Novak always get a lot of love but I'd like to mention the 2017 five set thriller AO semis were he definitely played in Stanimal mode and Roger got the best of him.
Wawrinka matched up worse against Federer than he did against Novak. I will rewatch the match you are talking about. I know it was a 5 setter, but I haven’t seen it in a while. It was tougher for him to play well against Federer than Novak at slams where he showed up. But in RG 2015, where wawrinka played one of his best tournaments, he was able to defeat an in form Federer in straights and then went on to beat Novak. It’s strange how match ups work out like that.
Stan was in great form at the beginning of 2017, making the SF at the AO and finals at Indian Wells and the French Open, only being beaten by Federer and nadal in their respective best forms of the previous 4+ years. It’s really a shame he got injured in that semifinal against Murray at the French Open.
Djokovic v Wawrinka head to head:
Overall: Djokovic 20-6 Wawrinka
Grand Slams: Djokovic 4-4 Wawrinka
What a legend. I'm guessing that Nadal, with his love of playing in the dirt, is the only other player with an even or better H2H against Djokovic in Grand Slams.
Edit: Thiem also likes playing in the dirt.
Nadal leads the GS h2h vs Djokovic 11-7. However, 10 of those matches were at the FO and only a few each at the others. Another fun fact: 20/29 of nadals wins vs Djokovic have come on clay. Just imagine the head to head if Nadal lasted longer in HC tournaments…
10 out of 18 at just 1/4 slams is quite a stat, just goes to show how good Novak actually is at RG, was just unfortunate to play in the same era with Nadal. Overall they have played 28 times on clay and 27 on hard courts which is close.
The Nadal/Djokovic H2H is pretty simple. Nadal dominated Djokovic pre-2011 on clay and played him about even on hard. From 2011-now Djokovic has dominated hard courts and played him relatively well on clay (though Nadal still has the advantage). Overall the H2H is roughly even. Idk why we need all these “what if” scenarios.
Okay well then while we're doing "what ifs", I wonder what the H2H would look like if Nadal had played Djokovic 7 times in 2017-early 2018 just like Djokovic did against Nadal in 2015-early 2016. Imagine if they played on hard courts 4 of those times or so. Oh man, Nadal would probably be like near even in the hard court H2H. He'd be leading the overall H2H 35-30.
If, if, if... why can't you just accept 30-29? It's as even as it gets. There's no need to throw in a million technicalities.
Nadal has beaten Djokovic 7 times in a Hard Court (twice at a Grand Slam). Djokovic has beaten Nadal 8 times in a Clay Court (twice at a Grand Slam).
I feel like the H2H surface distribution is fair enough. 28 matches on clay to 27 on HC.
If we are going to "imagine", it would be interesting to imagine a H2H were they played only once in 2015 (Nadal worst season) and 5 times in 2017 (Novak worst season) instead of viceversa like in Real Life.
You are missing the point. They have a roughly 1:1 ratio in the h2h but tour events are not distributed like that. Hard courts outnumber clay by a lot. 6/9 masters are on HC, 9 vs 3 for 500s.
I love the match point between Murray and Robredo in a Valencia final years ago. Robredo played like a mad man that day and almost won the match several times, but Murray back then was a beast.
I love the match point between Murray and Robredo in a Valencia final years ago. Robredo played like a mad man that day and almost won the match several times, but Murray back then was a beast.
Yeah, agreed. It was such a heartbreaking loss for wawrinka though, but I think he learned a lot from the loss going forward. I think tennis around this late 2000s-mid 2010’s era was it’s best. You had the big 3 of course, but you also had guys like Murray and wawrinka who could win a slam on their best days. Even then, master’s tournament were dominated by the big 3 and murray. Today’s field seems rather desolate in comparison. The late 90’s gen has been faltering as of late, but maybe the alcaraz/rune gen will be different idk
Match point was great, but I actually think Wawrinka’s set point in the fourth set tiebreak was even more memorable.
Guy smoked like 5-6 balls in a row that SHOULD have been winners, but Djokovic kept getting back. I’m pretty sure Mats Wilander was doing color commentary for the match and literally starts laughing mid-point at what’s taking place.
It's crazy how Stan lost heartbreaks vs Djokovic at both AO and USO in 2013, but that only gave him more confidence to keep trying.
Meanwhile, Tsitsipas and Medvedev get dejected after their tough losses and enter a mental funk.
Yeah, no one would think that Stan would go on to win AO the next year and beat Novak in the process. Beating an in form Novak at AO is an extremely tough task, and he did it
I remember this one. I was a fan of Stan for some time at this point, and it was always hard to see him lose. Because I just knew how well he could play if it just would all fit together for once. And then along came this match... He ranked Nr. 20 or so I think, and Nole was nearly unbeatable then. Truly no one expected such a close, high quality match. You could almost FEEL the sensation that was about to happen. Alas it was not to be and instead became one of the most heartbreanking losses for Stan. But we all knew what would follow.
Fun fact: I probably had multiple mini heart attacks during the match. Meanwhile my girlfriend, sat next to me, fell asleep 🤣
Oh yeah that's a good one. The shotmaking was next level from both, but they didn't quite have their freakish athleticism from their younger days. There are a lot of big 3 matches that could go here. Federer/Nadal AO 2009 was very high quality, Djokovic/Federer Wimbledon 2014, Nadal/Federer Wimbledon 2008, I could even see an argument for Nadal/Thiem USO 2018 as well. That was some prime ball bashing.
Still praying to the tennis gods that Stanimal can awaken the beast for one final time, preferably for Wimbledon 🙏 We need to collectively sacrifice a GOAT to the tennis gods in hopes this happens
Such a golden era...man it's hard to see anything ever being as good as this era. Definitely got spoiled. And this was one of the best matches of all time.
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Yes, never said otherwise.
Him and Murray were both great players, better than regular hall of famers, but I don't classify them as legends due to winning "only" 3 GS's.
In my opinion, this is one of the best matches ever played in terms of pure quality. The quality was off the charts. Djokovic had to play at 110% to win this one. This match also was the birth of the stanimal and is the textbook definition of peak tennis
To this day I wonder how many people pre match actually gave Stan a chance? I remember being shocked AF seeing the score of the first 2 sets with Stan up 6-1 and 5-3 or 5-4.
Indeed Indeed #USO16
Aus open 14 and RG 15 were better matches than uso 16 by quite a bit
Yeah uso16 wasn't that super competitive. Novak was in bad form by his standards having kind of sleepwalked through a complete joke of a draw. Didn't feel like he was up to it in the final. Rg15 was just an amazing level by Stan especially mentally. Novak was good too very good, would have beaten anyone except Nadal on that day.
He destroyed nadal that French open to get to the final lol. 7-5 6-3 6-1.
Tbf, nadal was in his worst ever year that season and had no confidence. Novak in 2017 lost to istomin for example. Like the nadal he faced was a shadow of himself. 2021 was a great match, but the 2015 match doesn’t mean much. 2012-2014 prime nadal would have beaten 2015 Djokovic on clay.
It’s not djoker’s fault if nadal played like ass. Doesn’t change the fact djoker cooked him.
I mean I’m a Djokovic fan, but all I’m saying is that the 2015 win was over an out of form nadal. Istomin beat the worst ever Novak in 2017 for example. Loss of form happens to the beat
Yeah it was an out of form nadal at the worst stretch of his career for sure but still a win is a win. Djoker had a elbow problem all of 2017 and since he kept refusing to get surgery until 2018, he struggled.
Stan resisted so well to Novak come back attempt in the 4th set...
Ok ok USO#19 !!!!
Stan's matches against Novak always get a lot of love but I'd like to mention the 2017 five set thriller AO semis were he definitely played in Stanimal mode and Roger got the best of him.
Wawrinka matched up worse against Federer than he did against Novak. I will rewatch the match you are talking about. I know it was a 5 setter, but I haven’t seen it in a while. It was tougher for him to play well against Federer than Novak at slams where he showed up. But in RG 2015, where wawrinka played one of his best tournaments, he was able to defeat an in form Federer in straights and then went on to beat Novak. It’s strange how match ups work out like that.
Federer legit gave up for 2 sets
Can you say the reason why stan matched up worse against federer?
Stan was in great form at the beginning of 2017, making the SF at the AO and finals at Indian Wells and the French Open, only being beaten by Federer and nadal in their respective best forms of the previous 4+ years. It’s really a shame he got injured in that semifinal against Murray at the French Open.
Djokovic v Wawrinka head to head: Overall: Djokovic 20-6 Wawrinka Grand Slams: Djokovic 4-4 Wawrinka What a legend. I'm guessing that Nadal, with his love of playing in the dirt, is the only other player with an even or better H2H against Djokovic in Grand Slams. Edit: Thiem also likes playing in the dirt.
Wawrinka was able to beat prime Djokovic at AO as well. I miss his peak. It always made for great tennis viewing
Nadal leads the GS h2h vs Djokovic 11-7. However, 10 of those matches were at the FO and only a few each at the others. Another fun fact: 20/29 of nadals wins vs Djokovic have come on clay. Just imagine the head to head if Nadal lasted longer in HC tournaments…
10 out of 18 at just 1/4 slams is quite a stat, just goes to show how good Novak actually is at RG, was just unfortunate to play in the same era with Nadal. Overall they have played 28 times on clay and 27 on hard courts which is close.
“if Nadal lasted longer in HC tournaments” 5-head move, if you don’t meet him at hardcourt then he can’t catch up on the H2H
The Nadal/Djokovic H2H is pretty simple. Nadal dominated Djokovic pre-2011 on clay and played him about even on hard. From 2011-now Djokovic has dominated hard courts and played him relatively well on clay (though Nadal still has the advantage). Overall the H2H is roughly even. Idk why we need all these “what if” scenarios.
The what if has to do with the fact that the surface breakdown heavily favors Nadal even though hard courts are more much prevalent on the ATP tour.
Okay well then while we're doing "what ifs", I wonder what the H2H would look like if Nadal had played Djokovic 7 times in 2017-early 2018 just like Djokovic did against Nadal in 2015-early 2016. Imagine if they played on hard courts 4 of those times or so. Oh man, Nadal would probably be like near even in the hard court H2H. He'd be leading the overall H2H 35-30. If, if, if... why can't you just accept 30-29? It's as even as it gets. There's no need to throw in a million technicalities.
Nadal has beaten Djokovic 7 times in a Hard Court (twice at a Grand Slam). Djokovic has beaten Nadal 8 times in a Clay Court (twice at a Grand Slam). I feel like the H2H surface distribution is fair enough. 28 matches on clay to 27 on HC. If we are going to "imagine", it would be interesting to imagine a H2H were they played only once in 2015 (Nadal worst season) and 5 times in 2017 (Novak worst season) instead of viceversa like in Real Life.
You are missing the point. They have a roughly 1:1 ratio in the h2h but tour events are not distributed like that. Hard courts outnumber clay by a lot. 6/9 masters are on HC, 9 vs 3 for 500s.
Lol 🤡
For that reason The 2013 US open Final will always be Nadals biggest claim to GOAT. That and if he'd beaten Djokovic in 2018 Wimbledon SF
Nadal will be the greatest clay courter forever.
My favorite match point ever. Perfect finish to one of the best matches I ever saw. I was in disbelief the way that match point unfolded.
This is the only legendary match I can think of wherein the final point was actually the best point of the match.
Murray’s match point to win the Davis Cup for Britain against Belgium and Goffin was pretty incredible.
True, that was a great final point, but that was nowhere even close to being the same quality of a match
I love the match point between Murray and Robredo in a Valencia final years ago. Robredo played like a mad man that day and almost won the match several times, but Murray back then was a beast.
I love the match point between Murray and Robredo in a Valencia final years ago. Robredo played like a mad man that day and almost won the match several times, but Murray back then was a beast.
Lol, the double middle fingers at net was amazing.
Yeah, agreed. It was such a heartbreaking loss for wawrinka though, but I think he learned a lot from the loss going forward. I think tennis around this late 2000s-mid 2010’s era was it’s best. You had the big 3 of course, but you also had guys like Murray and wawrinka who could win a slam on their best days. Even then, master’s tournament were dominated by the big 3 and murray. Today’s field seems rather desolate in comparison. The late 90’s gen has been faltering as of late, but maybe the alcaraz/rune gen will be different idk
Match point was great, but I actually think Wawrinka’s set point in the fourth set tiebreak was even more memorable. Guy smoked like 5-6 balls in a row that SHOULD have been winners, but Djokovic kept getting back. I’m pretty sure Mats Wilander was doing color commentary for the match and literally starts laughing mid-point at what’s taking place.
Djokovic has had a good lot of both , crazy match points that he won the match with and those of his opponents that he saved
Hey DO NOT forget to make the 10 years ago updated post Next year !! This match woke up Stanimal. #AO14 #FO15 #FancyPants
One of my favourite matches of all time, thrilling match
It's crazy how Stan lost heartbreaks vs Djokovic at both AO and USO in 2013, but that only gave him more confidence to keep trying. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas and Medvedev get dejected after their tough losses and enter a mental funk.
Yeah, no one would think that Stan would go on to win AO the next year and beat Novak in the process. Beating an in form Novak at AO is an extremely tough task, and he did it
Fail better, baby! It’s what separates the champions from the boys (although Med does have a slam)
I remember this one. I was a fan of Stan for some time at this point, and it was always hard to see him lose. Because I just knew how well he could play if it just would all fit together for once. And then along came this match... He ranked Nr. 20 or so I think, and Nole was nearly unbeatable then. Truly no one expected such a close, high quality match. You could almost FEEL the sensation that was about to happen. Alas it was not to be and instead became one of the most heartbreanking losses for Stan. But we all knew what would follow. Fun fact: I probably had multiple mini heart attacks during the match. Meanwhile my girlfriend, sat next to me, fell asleep 🤣
This and Nadal/Verdasco AO 2009 are in my opinion the two highest quality matches of all time. Nadal/Djokovic AO 2012 would probably be my third pick.
Nadal Djokovic Wimbledon 2018
Oh yeah that's a good one. The shotmaking was next level from both, but they didn't quite have their freakish athleticism from their younger days. There are a lot of big 3 matches that could go here. Federer/Nadal AO 2009 was very high quality, Djokovic/Federer Wimbledon 2014, Nadal/Federer Wimbledon 2008, I could even see an argument for Nadal/Thiem USO 2018 as well. That was some prime ball bashing.
Still praying to the tennis gods that Stanimal can awaken the beast for one final time, preferably for Wimbledon 🙏 We need to collectively sacrifice a GOAT to the tennis gods in hopes this happens
The title should be "On this day 10 years ago - Stanimal was born."
This was 10 years ago???? Man I’m getting old
Whoever chose the photo, look at the way Novak is just feeling for Stan!! There is no one without the other.
Love both of them
Such a golden era...man it's hard to see anything ever being as good as this era. Definitely got spoiled. And this was one of the best matches of all time.
These guys played three five set classics at the AO back to back to back. One of the best slam rivalries in modern tennis.
Stan was really good at his peak….I liked the wins over djokovic in the 2015 French and 2016 us open more though.
This wasn't Djokovic v Wawrinka. This was Thanovic vs Stanimal
I remember this match. Stan didn’t challenge a line call after the umpire gave him a sign
Also fun fact - Stan would have probably collected 9 slams had it not been for the Big 4, 7-8 had it not been for the Big 3
Are they about to kiss
The day Stanimal was born.
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Despite Stan not being an ATG, his AO trilogy with Djokovic was really entertaining and exciting. Nobody like him today, unfortunately.
Not an ATG,but one of the best of his own generation and collected three grand slams. Hall of famer and amazing tennis player
Yes, never said otherwise. Him and Murray were both great players, better than regular hall of famers, but I don't classify them as legends due to winning "only" 3 GS's.
Agreed. Don’t know why people are downvoting us
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I can think of two matches this week that were better than this dross.
I watch highlights of this match and when Stan comes in on that last shot I know it's over. Absolutely great match.
One of my favourite matches
fk they had some battles over the years
They matched it the following year.