I do not think Schuettler was on the level of Sonego at all, his career-high ranking was world number 4. Also I do think Verkerk was better than Maroszan, the rest of his career with the exception of his slam final was very underwhelming but he did catch fire on road to his final.

 

Rainer was a decent Tour player before the final, had a career high in the 20-30 range, just like Sonego.
Verkerk is a good example of a journeyman who could get hot, much like Maroszan

It's just a retrospective view from your side. These guys were nobodies before they had good runs at Slam. Well, Rainer was as decent as Sonego is

 

I beg to differ on some of these examples. First, there are two impossible scenarios under any circumstances: 2022 Nadal beating 2022 Djokovic outside of clay and Shelphone beating Zverev at any Slam - the man can't beat Mugnarino from 2 sets to 1 up, how is he going to beat one of the only players who has been immune to losing against lefties in the last 3 years?
Second, Sonego is still too farfetched an example for a Grand Slam finalist. Schüttler reached another Grand Slam SF and a Masters final. I think the best parallel would've been Musetti, considering the Australian Open is currently Musetti's worst Slam.
Third, where is Sinner? Why doesn't he have a parallel?

 

I beg to differ on some of these examples. First, there are two impossible scenarios under any circumstances: 2022 Nadal beating 2022 Djokovic outside of clay and Shelphone beating Zverev at any Slam - the man can't beat Mugnarino from 2 sets to 1 up, how is he going to beat one of the only players who has been immune to losing against lefties in the last 3 years?
Second, Sonego is still too farfetched an example for a Grand Slam finalist. Schüttler reached another Grand Slam SF and a Masters final. I think the best parallel would've been Musetti, considering the Australian Open is currently Musetti's worst Slam.
Third, where is Sinner? Why doesn't he have a parallel?

Shelton was unlucky with his injury; otherwise, he was only stopped by Sincaraz at Slams this year
It's hard to come up with something equal to the Sampras-Agassi match; maybe 2024 Djokovic def. 2022 Nadal, but these are versions from different seasons
If anything, Sonego come, let's say AO 2024, is a better player than Schuettler come AO 2003
Musetti is way too young and way too good to be compared to Schuettler. Rainer was a super-average player who made the most out of his good run at AO. Pretty much like Norrie did from his IW title. But Norrie in 2024-25 is a former top-8 player, Slam finalist, and MS winner, while Rainer had no legacy before AO 2003.
Alcaraz is younger, so it's easier to compare him with 21-year-old Fed from Wimbledon 2003.

 

Also, I'd like to hear "modern-day equals" from other users
Should be fun

 

Also, I'd like to hear "modern-day equals" from other users
Should be fun

Wim 2002 De Minaur def Machac
FO 2003 Musetti def Fonseca

 

AO 2002 Michelson def Draper

 

OP exposing the weak era used to undermine Carlos' success

 

this troll is going to keep rampaging until he gets banned.

 

LOL at Sonego and Marozsan...

 

Everyone knows it, a guy like Fritz would be a multi slam winner in that era.

 

One slam would be a more sensible choice.

 

'Babydal' saved nothing. He just kept winning French Opens from 2005, that's it. Federer for sure played his part in making the era stronger but he was alone in this effort. The worst part of the weak era (2001-2007) is that it lacked a good set of giant killers. Rafter retired after 2001 and Safin was good for only half of this time period. The Fedal period (2008-2010) saw the emergence of four GKs - Tsonga (2008), Soderling (2009), del Potro (2009) and Berdych (2010).

Btw, many of the names in the table are mismatches. I will try to make it better. The following are the rough equivalents in recent years. I will keep some of your names intact.

Tournament	2002 FINAL	Modern-day equal	2003 final	Modern-day equal
AO	Johanson def Safin	Paul def Tstitsipas	Agassi def Schuettler	Alcaraz def Sonego
FO	Costa def Ferrero	Khachanov def Ruud	Ferrero def Verkerk	Ruud def Marozsan
W	Hewitt def Nalbandian	Medvedev def Fritz	Federer def Philippoussis	Sinner def Berrettini
USO	Sampras def Agassi	Djokovic def Alcaraz	Roddick def Ferrero	Zverev def Ruud

Honestly, it was very hard to find matches for Agassi and pre-prime Federer. I have matched them with Alcaraz and Sinner, even though the latter two are much greater players.

 

The worst part of the weak era (2001-2007) is that it lacked a good set of giant killers.

What is your definition of a giant killer, and can you let me know who you consider as being one in today's field? I am sure I can then name at least twice as many from 2005 (or any other year in the period you mentioned).

 

Who says it is a sign of weakness of the field if there are many players who can actually get to a slam final rather than always the same two? That is not an obvious conclusion.

 

Guys like Johanson, Costa, Schuetler, Ferrero, and Verkert either had just one good tournament or 1-2-3 good years
And most importantly, they did nothing against Fedal or even Babyvoic while being in their 20s. 15 or 16 yo Nadal defeated Costa at some Masters

 

The Djokovid comparisons with Maggie Court are really hitting home I see

Easily triggered these tards, in their sectioned accommodation, and giving us all a good 🤣

 

The one that really grinded my gears and I say that in my worst Peter Griffin RI accent was Hewitt-Nalbandian at Wimby 02. After the great 01 throwback Final we got a baseliner shitshow and I reserve a special place of hatred in my heart for that arrogant bastard Nalbandian. Trash player

 

And to hell with Hewitt too

 

So the conclusion of this is that Federer, Nadal, Alcaraz and Sinner should be happy that Djokovic was born in 1987 so they could win some GS outside of Djokovic's heyday.

 

It´s tough to have giant killers if the target is peak Federer...Safin did it once and it required arguably one of the best matches in tennis history

 

Late 2001-03 was transitional era for sure.

Safin was seen as player to dominate after his destruction of Sampras in US 2000 but it was more flashes of genius in following slams rather than sustained dominance. Considering the level of Safin-Federer in AO 2005 we should've seen that as a genuinely big rivalry for 5-6 years at least given Safin's age but didn't happen.

Hewitt also looked very good in terms of mentality and benefiting from the slowing of courts and would've been seen as 5-6 slam winner at least in that era but injuries stopped that.

That era of FO passed me by really until Ferrero and Coria came to the fore and threatened to dominate for a few RGs before Nadal did it all countless times.

I think arguably the weakest slam in that period was Wimbledon 2002. Just look at the names from fourth round: Vacek, Kratochvil, Andre Sa, Wayne Arthurs, N. Lapentti.

5 career titles between them!

Henman had missed his big chance in 2001 against Goran although ironically he was arguably only a few points away from being favourite for that Wimbledon as Sjeng Schalken had some BPs late in the 5th set of QF v Hewitt. If he'd taken one the Wimbledon SFs would've been Henman-Schalken and Malisse-Nalbandian.

Don't get me wrong Schalken was a very good player indeed as involved in plenty of second week slam runs and classic matches but considering the next year at Wimbledon we had Federer-Roddick facing off in SF that was very weak year. 2001 had Agassi-Rafter in the forgotten SF which was also five sets and excellent quality.

 

It's certain that with Djoko, the goat of retirements in GS, it would quickly eliminate Berdych... we understand this "restriction" better without "prejudices" 😅


Coincidentally, this happened only against a GS winner or a runner-up, no less.

1. Roland Garros 2005 – Guillermo Coria
2. Roland Garros 2006 – Rafael Nadal
3. Wimbledon 2007 – Rafael Nadal
4. Australian Open 2009 – Andy Roddick
5. Wimbledon 2017 – Tomas Berdych <== 2nd loss in Wimb after 2010
6. US Open 2019 – Stan Wawrinka
7. Australian Open 2025 – Alexander Zverev

There is no question why JWT's victory over Djoko at AO 2010 is not counted... but only 2008 AO (Nadal), 2011 Wimbledon (Federer)

So predictable... so insecure... so transparent it's touching

 

Good thing you brought it up, Djokovic would probably have 30+ GS right now if he hadn't been so unlucky.

After all, he outclassed peak Alcaraz by one leg while looking after his kids in the stands during the Olympics.

 

Almost as weak as 2018-2023.

 

They were still more interesting than 2015-2016. The 2016 RG final was the day tennis died.