A year has passed since Roger Federer said goodbye to professional tennis. I approved the anniversary to remember the list of players who managed to dominate the H2H against the Swiss in his 24 seasons in the elite of world tennis.
I had been thinking about launching this article for a long time, but it won’t be another day. I know that Roger Federer It’s not current right now, but it’s never a bad time to talk about legends. Much less on these dates, when exactly one year has passed since the maestro hung up his racket on that Making Cup From london. On this occasion, we will talk about the players who managed to beat him head-to-head during his active period, a journey that started in 1998 and ended in 2022.
In total, the Swiss faced 346 different rivals in his 1,526 official matches recorded on individual records. For the most curious, his balance was finally above 82% of victories (1251-275), although he could not prevent a total of 28 men they left with the favorable H2H. Who were? Before showing the complete list, let’s go with some historical touches.
Within this album of memories, there is a series of cards that appear more repeated than the rest. Eight rivals before which Federer faced many more times than with the others, leading the table in his 50 duels with the Serbian Novak Djokovic. Below appear the 40 matches against Rafael Nadalthe 27 against Lleyton Hewittthe 26 against Tomas Berych y Stan Wawrinka25 contra Andy Murray y Juan Martin del Potroor the 24 against the American Andy Roddick. Obviously, all more or less close to his generation, even though the Swiss was a player who competed in four different decades.
Okay, I know what question comes next. Of all these rivals, which ones did you dominate most clearly? Don’t worry, we have all the data on the table. A man can boast the honor of being the one who was defeated the most times by the Swiss: Stan Wawrinka. His compatriot and good friend, a Davis Cup partner, was sentenced by Roger on 23 occasions out of the 26 they faced. On the same step as the tennis player from Lausanne appears Novak Djokovic, also with 23 defeats, although the Serbian took over the overall H2H and that is why his name will appear again later. Complete this table Andy Roddick with 21 defeats, Tomas Berdych with 20, the 19 of Richard Gaquet y Nikolay Davydenkoor the 18 that share Juan Martin del Potro y Lleyton Hewitt.
If we look at the statistics from the opposite perspective, it is reasonable to point out those opponents who managed to surpass Basel’s team on more occasions, regardless of how their particular H2H ended. Once again it’s time to talk about Novak Djokovicthe man who won the most games against the Swiss in his history, with 27. He is followed by 24 of Rafael Nadal and 11 o’clock Andy Murray, underlining for the umpteenth time the relevance of the Big4 in the current era. Also highlight the 9 wins over the Helvetian of Lleyton Hewittthe 8 of David Nalbandian and the 7 of Juan Martin del Potro.
If we talk about complete rivalries, we can comment on some of the most unbalanced ones and, in most cases, in favor of the teacher. None more beast than the 23-3 that he ended up drawing against his friend Stan Wawrinka, someone who always remained in the shadow of his ‘big brother’, although he knew how to find his moment to win three Grand Slam titles. Also mention other very unbalanced face-to-face matches such as 21-3 with Andy Roddick19-2 with Richard Gasquet y Nikolay Davydenkoor 17-0 with David Ferrer o Mikhail Youzhny. Tremendous cases of the Spaniard and the Russian, who despite flipping the coin against the Swiss on 17 occasions, never once did it come out heads.
Do we now study the opposite cases? Of course, although there will be fewer surprises here. Two names, the only two who today can say that they have more Grand Slam singles titles than our protagonist. On one side, the 16-24 with Rafael Nadal; on the other side, 23-27 with Novak Djokovic. They were the ones who faced him the most times and beat him the most times, two concepts that do not always go hand in hand, as we have seen in the article.
Anyway, now, let’s review without further ado the list of 28 players who ended or will end their careers with a favorable H2H against the Swiss player. Surely some guest will surprise you.
THE 28 PLAYERS WITH POSITIVE H2H AGAINST FEDERER
23-27 Novak Djokovic 16-24 Rafael Nadal 2-5 Dominic Thiem 2-4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov 3-4 Alexander Zverev 0-3 Patrick Rafter 2-3 Àlex Corretja 1-3 Thomas Enqvist 0-2 Franco Squillari 1-2 Dominik Hrbaty 1-2 Wayne Ferreira 1-2 Gustavo Kuerten 0-1 Lucas Arnold Ker 0-1 Jan Siemerink 0-1 Christophe Van Garsse 0-1 Byron Black 0-1 Kenneth Carlsen 0-1 Markus Hantschk 0-1 Andrei Medvedev 0-1 Francisco Clavet 0-1 James Sekulov 0-1 Andrea Gaudenzi 0-1 Sergi Bruguera 0-1 Evgeny Donskoy 0-1 Thanasi Kokkinakis 0-1 Andrey Rublev 0-1 Pablo Andújar 0-1 Félix Auger-Aliassime
An extensive list, with profiles of all the generations he encountered, although only five managed to beat him more than three times. Alexander Zverev o Dominic Thiem They managed to find the point at the time, but none stood in their way as much as Nadal and Djokovic did. Of course, perhaps the one with special merit on the list is Patrick Rafter and the 0-3 that he wears with pride. Three out of three, full.
Who was missing? A lot, but it hurts to think that two of the talents with the greatest future in world tennis, such as Jannik Sinner y Carlos Alcaraz, they did not arrive in time to face the Swiss even once. Neither does Holger Rune, for those who want to put him in the equation. Would they have surpassed him? I won’t get into that anymore, because others today like Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev or Cameron Norrie did try that luck and never found the formula to solve the hieroglyph.
2023-09-22 08:30:45
#Players #positive #H2H #Roger #Federer
