Tennis  > General Tennis  > The importance of Wimbledon '08
September 14, 2010, 07:00 PM
After the victory at the US Open, and the way Nadal played there it's not too hard to imagine Nadal ending his career 1 or 2 Grand Slam titles behind or ahead of Roger Federer.

It's early to say but, should that be the case it seems to me that the GOAT debate would be reduced to this: they battled it out in Wimbledon 08 and Australia 09 without even realizing it yet.

Thoughts?
September 14, 2010  07:26 PM ET

Federer has to add something to his game to keep close to Nadal. I think he will, but that said age is on Rafa's side. It would have been interesting to see Nadal versus Sampras at his best in the Open.

September 15, 2010  09:01 PM ET

I think it would be more interesting if Nadal played Sampras with them both in their prime on grass at centre court at a Wimbledon final. Sampras won Wimbledon 7 times Nadal has one it twice and power is more important on grass.

September 17, 2010  11:20 AM ET
QUOTE(#2):

I think it would be more interesting if Nadal played Sampras with them both in their prime on grass at centre court at a Wimbledon final. Sampras won Wimbledon 7 times Nadal has one it twice and power is more important on grass.

Wimbledon or the Open would be good as Pete won five times in New York

October 11, 2010  12:27 AM ET

Keep in mind that the courts are not as fast as they were in Pete's heyday. So a hypothetical match-up playing on today's center court would probably favor Rafa.

 
October 11, 2010  12:51 AM ET

Keep in mind that the courts today are playing a little slower than during Pete's heyday. My guess is that Rafa would have a slight edge if a hypothetical match-up were to take place on today's center court.

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