The self-proclaimed best win of David Goffin’s career came against Novak Djokovic on clay at last year’s Monte Carlo Masters. Until, that is, he beat an ailing world No.1 Rafael Nadal at November’s ATP World Finals, which was better still.
Except later that same week the Belgian stunned Roger Federer in the semis, an inspired first success against the GOAT in seven attempts. With that, Goffin became just the sixth player in history to beat both Roger and Rafa at the same tournament.
The moral of this story: if Federer doesn’t win the Australian Open, perhaps, just maybe, Goffin will.
Yes, Goffin. He may be yet to reach a major semifinal, but underestimate him at your peril. The world No.7 is slight and may well be the most understated member of the top 10, but his chorus of admirers is growing louder by the day.
Goffin’s debut single-figure ranking at the end of the season came after a year that included back-to-back titles in Shenzhen and Tokyo after the US Open, as well as three other ATP finals appearances – one at the prestigious year-end championships. Had the 26-year-old not missed six weeks with an ankle injury after a freak tarpaulin entanglement in his French Open third-round encounter against Horacio Zeballos, chances are that he would have finished higher still.
Nick Kyrgios had one of the best – and worst – views of just how potent Goffin can be during an imperious performance in the first reverse singles of the Davis Cup semi-final in Brussels. Victory in either of Sunday’s rubbers would have given Australia its first finals appearance since 2003. Instead, in four sets, Goffin levelled the tie later sealed by Steve Darcis, serving 20 aces, his returns and groundstrokes exceptional and defence impenetrable.
“When he is playing at that level he is up there with the best in the world,” a despondent Kyrgios said later “He served unbelievably well today. He was moving great, hitting great. He was too good.”
More heroics were to follow in a final played in front of 27,000 in the French cauldron in Lille – except, this time, in vain. Battling fatigue and a sore knee, Goffin won Belgium’s only two points against Yannick Noah’s triumphant team, extending his outstanding Davis Cup record to 17 wins from his last 18 singles matches.
It came in the week after his five matches against the world’s best in London, including a hard-fought final against long-time contemporary Grigor Dimitrov. “Sometimes you are for the first time in the top eight, you don't know how it's going to go, if you're going to play a good level,” Goffin said. “I proved to myself that, yeah, I'm in the right place, and I deserve to be here in this tournament.”
Worthy, too, of being counted among the genuine Australian Open contenders, with the early signs from 2018 encouraging, and a final tune-up at Kooyong to follow an impressive Hopman Cup in which he despatched Sascha Zverev, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Vasek Pospisil without the loss of a set before recovering from a slow start against qualifier Matthias Bachinger in the first round at Melbourne Park to win 6-7(3) 6-3 6-2 6-4.
For all his recent success, Goffin still considers himself a work in progress; one intent on improving his net game, further bolstering his serve and building on his dangerous return to construct a more aggressive game all-round.
And if 36-year-old Federer is the last remnant of one generation, early-30s types Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray best another, and Sascha Zverev, Kyrgios et al among those coming through at pace, then Dimitrov and Goffin are somewhere in between. Perhaps their time starts now.
“It's another generation. It's our generation,’’ says the Belgian, in his deceptively quiet way. “But we are here and we are fighting to beat the young guns and also the old ones.”