Posted Thursday September 15, 2011, About: Novak should be the Sportsman of the Year

I think he should definitely be in the running. First of all, he's having a phenomenal season. One of the best ever. Second of all, he's doing it at a time when he has to face not just one but two players who have deserved consideration for the Greatest Of All Time label and are still at or near their peaks. Three years ago, we seriously considered Federer to be the GOAT; two years ago and into last year, Nadal was being added to that discussion. Now Djokovic comes along and beats them both consistently. It's been pretty amazing.

If he doesn't win Sportsman of the Year, he should at least get a lot of votes.

Posted Thursday September 15, 2011, About: Djokovic never stopped beleiving; Nadal/Federer did.

This has been something that has interested me as well: the role that confidence/psychology seems to be playing in the men's side of the draw, especially among those top three: Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. As you point out, it seems that neither Federer nor Nadal actually believes he can beat Djokovic. You saw it with Federer up two sets to none in the semifinal: he seemed to wake up suddenly and think, "I can't possibly be beating this guy" and promptly fell apart. And then, again, when he was serving for the match in the fifth set, his confidence faltered.

Nadal, meanwhile, has admitted that Djokovic has gotten into his head.

My question is: If we took confidence out of the equation (created a world where all three players were completely confident at every moment and the winner was decided on pure talent, skill, strategy and fitness), who would win?

Right now, however, confidence is THE issue: ND has it, Rafa and Fed don't.