Are We Near the End for Roger?

Late into the Australian night Andy Murray battled past Roger Federer in five sets to reach his third Australian Open and sixth Grand Slam final. In doing so he beat Federer for the 11th time out of 20 encounters but crucially the first time in a Grand Slam Match.  It means that Murray has won the right to face Novak Djokovic in the Final and will want to have some revenge for the 2011 Australian Open Final where Murray was beaten in straight sets by Djokovic.  But for the me the question is how much longer will Roger be able to compete at the top level of tennis?


Although Roger is currently ranked world no.2 he has only won two out of the last twelve Grand Slams compared to winning 16 of the 24 before that.   He has had to compete with the emergence of Djokovic and Murray and with Nadal getting stronger on the non clay courts.  There is no doubt for me that he is the greatest male tennis player of all time as the stats all point to it being him, he has won more Grand Slams than anyone else with 17 and he has spent the most weeks as world no.1, at 302 weeks which includes the longest consecutive streak at 237 weeks.

You can't deny that Murray and Djokovic are better than they were four years ago but is Roger worse than he was then?  Well lets have a look.

Last year Roger actually played more games, 83, and won more games, 71, than in any other year since 2006 when he won 90 out of 95 and he won Wimbledon, his Stronghold, for the first time since 2009 equaling Pete Sampras' record of 7 Wimbledon titles. But in the last 4 years he has only had a winning record against another top 4 player twice, Murray last year and Djokovic in 2010 (though the only match he lost was in the US Open semi's) and only against Murray did he have a better record against in Grand Slams.  Details below.

2012

2 out of 5 against Djokovic (1 out of 2 in Grand Slams)

1 out of 2 against Nadal (0 out of 1 in Grand Slams)

3 out of 5 against Murray (1 out of 1 in Grand Slams)

2011

1 out of 5 against Djokovic (1 out of 3 in Grand Slams)

1 out of 4 against Nadal (0 out of 1 in Grand Slams)

Didn't face Murray in 2011

2010

4 out of 5 against Djokovic (0 out of 1 in Grand Slams)

1 out of 2 against Nadal (didn't meet in Grand Slams)

2 out of 4 against Murray (1 out of 1 in Grand Slams)

2009

2 out of 5 against Djokovic (didn't meet in Grand Slams)

1 out of 2 against Nadal (0 out of 1 in Grand Slams)

2 out of 4 against Murray (didn't meet in Grand Slams)

I think going from today's result that Murray is moving beyond Roger and may soon take his world no.2 status away from him but while Rafael Nadal is still injured he is the third best player in the world in my book.  He will still get to the Semi's but he will struggle against Novak, Andy and Nadal when he is fit and if he doesn't win Wimbledon this year I don't see him winning a Grand Slams.  If he goes a season without a title I think he should step aside and not diminish he glories record.


Trivia Questions 9

Q:  Although Roger Federer has won the French Open he has never beaten Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, who is the only person to have beaten Nadal at the French open.


Trivia Questions 8

Q:  Which Premier League season was the only season where none of the top 10 goal scores where English?


A: 2007-08, the top scorers are detailed below thanks of Wikipedia.

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	31
2	Fernando Torres	Liverpool	24
	Emmanuel Adebayor	Arsenal	24
4	Roque Santa Cruz	Blackburn Rovers	19
5	Benjani	Portsmouth / Manchester City	15
	Dimitar Berbatov	Tottenham Hotspur	15
	Robbie Keane	Tottenham Hotspur	15
	Yakubu	Everton	15
9	Carlos Tévez	Manchester United	14
10	John Carew	Aston Villa	13