For me, Roger Federer is at the top of the hierarchy. This means that in any match he's playing, I want him to win, regardless of who the opponent is. Second in the list is Andy Roddick--so I always want him to win his match, unless he's playing Federer (although if those two meet in a Wimbledon final again I'm going to want Andy to win).
It's easy to name your top few players but it's hard to make a top ten list where you will ALWAYS want your number 6 guy to beat any of the players listed beneath him--and if you can't promise that you want number 6 to beat number 10 every single time then you can't include him in that spot (and yes, the making of a tennis player hierarchy is very serious).
So here's my current top ten:
1) Roger Federer
2) Andy Roddick
3) Andy Murray
4) Rafa Nadal
5) Lleyton Hewitt
6) David Ferrer
7) Mikhail Youzhny
8) Tomas Berdych
9) Tommy Haas
10) Marcos Baghdatis
The last half of the list can easily change at any time, but the top (especially the top two) is pretty permanent. I sort of feel bad about putting Nadal way down in spot number four. The truth is, I think he's amazing but sometimes I want him to lose his matches just so he doesn't break any of Federer's records. And yes, the fact that I've thought this through so much does in fact make me a little crazy.
Great hierarchy! Although, I think you're missing some Serbs. Who doesn't want to see a match with Djoko? When Novak manages to get through a match without retiring AND also wins, I'd say that's a game worth seeing.
ReplyDeleteIf I cared strongly about Djokovic winning I'm afraid I'd be constantly disappointed. I mean, it's true--wondering whether he'll finish a match or retire with some sort of ailment IS fun, but I prefer to cheer for those crazy players that always finish their matches.
ReplyDelete