Working on the “Facing Federer Nadal and Hewitt” series books several surprising quirky ATP head to head stats came to attention.
For instance – Roger Federer is 8-0 vs Alejandro Falla but Rafael Nadal has never played Falla once in his career. Nadal has also never once played Yen-Hsun Lu. Lleyton Hewitt is about the identical age of Ivan Ljubicic but they only played once early in Ivan’s career (won by Hewitt in three sets). Hewitt also only played Andy Murray once (Andy’s first ATP title in San Jose). This year Djokovic and Federer have played eight times.
Oddly Hewitt played Mark Woodforde on six occasions in his career including four matches in 1999.
Marcelo Rios was 2-1 vs Andre Agassi and 0-2 vs Pete Sampras but 6-4 vs Alberto Berasategui and 1-3 vs Marat Safin.
For contrast – Juan Del Potro and Tomas Berdych have clashed seven times with Delpo holding the 4-3 edge. Djokovic and Andy have played 30 times with Nole holding 21 wins.
Marat Safin is 7-7 vs Hrbaty and 3-4 vs Guga Kuerten. David Ferrer is 9-5 vs Nalbandian.
Ropddick is 5-4 vs Djokovic. Can you recall any other quirky ATP head to head stats?
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Harold · November 21, 2015 at 9:41 am
Good day for tennis today . Good matches, rivalries.
ESPN should never let anyone but PMac, Cahill and BG do matches. They talk tennis to people that got up at 9 am on a Sat morning to watch. Not like the Drysdales or Fowlers who cater to the thought people are watching tennis for the first time in their lives.
Djoko is on fire
Harold · November 21, 2015 at 9:47 am
Of Berasategui is Rios greatest rivalry, no way he gets into HOF
Andrew Miller · November 21, 2015 at 11:02 am
Wawrinka might beat Federer today. Wawrinka: Probably the least appreciated tennis champion . Number two in slam count these past two years of Djokovic dominance. Probably the third most significant story in tennis behind Djokovic and Serena Williams. He has no fans on the scale of anyone else in the top ten. Wawrinka: The other Swiss guy that actually wins slams these days.
Scoop Malinowski · November 21, 2015 at 6:08 pm
Andrew -Stan has a lot of fans worldwide but he was a zoMbie today – just doesn’t like to play his pal Roger – he is More coMfortable battling Djokovic than Fed – but Stan is one of those guys like Delpo who is beloved all over the world – however he’s overshadowed by those four global icons –
Scoop Malinowski · November 21, 2015 at 6:09 pm
Djokovic actually beat Rafa today and Made it look easy – total obliteration – short points easy winners perfect placeMents – it’s hard to see Rafa closing the considerable gap between he and Djokovic next year –