Roger Federer- The greatest ever

S

SchertzHorn

100+ Posts
Federer's resume now reads: 14 Grandslams, the career grandslam (on all four surfaces), and ties Pete Sampras with majors. With Nadal's injury looking more severe and a chance that he will miss Wimbledon, Roger's tie with Sampras may only last another month. He is a pleasure to watch play and a class act.
 
Agreed. I don't think anyone will ever match 20 straight grand slam semis and 15 of the last 16 finals.

I'm hoping that Nadal is ok, their rivalry is great for tennis.
 
There is no greatest ever. Greatest of his generation for sure. He now has the full resume and some records that likely will never be broken. His winning% since 2004 and record in slams is just off the charts.

Laver and Borg had similar all surface games like Federer. Sampras was a great lawn and hard court player with his huge serve. Crazy to think that Sampras may be the worst of those 4.
 
Everybody has different opinions. I for one will not say that any of those guys are better than the other. Different eras with different opponents. Different technology and as you mention different surfaces.

Laver was ranked #1 for 7 straight years. He won te career grand slam twice. He is the only player in the open era to have won the grand slam in the same calendar year. Laver's competition included Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Tony Roche, John Newcombe, etc. In 1969 he won the calendar year grand slam with 17 total titles and a record of 106-16. In 1962 he won 19 titles with a record of 134-15. He was a great doubles player as well. His accomplishments are amazing.

Federer is right up there with him.
 
Laver was a great player but the 2 slams is a bit over-rated.

In 1962 when he won, he won against amateurs and then turned pro the next year and was thoroughly annihilated on the pro circuit. He even said something to the effect that he had to start all over learning tennis.

In time, he developed into one of the greatest of all time, to be sure. These different ages are hard to compare, but I have seen Laver, Lyndl, Sampras, Agasse, Newcombe, and Borg and I have to say that Roger is the best.

His ability to win on all surfaces and to get to the finals and semi-finals relentlessly in slams is amazing. No one has come close to this.
 
He is amazing and my favorite player. I just can't call him or likely anyone the greatest ever. Perhaps if he had beaten Nadal a few more times in the finals they met in. The stat I believe is 1-5 against Nadal in slam finals. You just can't be considered the greatest ever if you are losing to your main rival that consistently in slam finals.
 
I agree he goes down as one of the best, if not the best, ever.

But I'm going to disagree with the sentiment that it has been a pleasure to follow the career of Federer. Men's tennis under Federer has become like women's tennis under Navratilova or Graf. There is one and only one opponent who has a chance to beat him. Evert could occasionally beat Navratilova, especially on clay (sound familiar?). Seles could occasionally beat Graf (although she had turned the corner on Graf when she was stabbed).

For me, there is nothing more boring than a men's grand slam tournament featuring Roger Federer. Nadal is the only guy with a realistic shot of defeating him. The script is already written. I already know what's going to happen.

Pete had some kind of blood disorder thing to which commentators would occasionally allude and which affected his stamina, particularly in the heat. Sampras gutted out some epic matches against otherwise inferior opponents. Has Roger Federer ever gutted anything out? I have watched Federer play matches in which he appeared to not even break a sweat.

When Sampras first started winning majors, he had to contend with the likes of Becker, Edberg, Lendl and Agassi. In the prime of his career he had to continue to deal with Agassi as well as players such as Patrick Rafter, Michael Stich, Richard Krajicek, Goran Ivanisevic and Jim Courier.

Who in the hell has Federer had to contend with? I mean, I know it's not his fault that his opponents provide such a weak challenge. But it's hard to gauge the measure of a man who, most of the time, simply coasts to victory.
 
I think the quality of tennis the last few years has been the best to watch since the 80's. I loved watching Agassi and Courrier at times. Sampras was my favorite at the time but when you look back at it he was mostly blowing guys away with his serve and then maybe getting a volley in to win the point. The last few years the guys aren't playing serve and volley much and the style of tennis has changed to more of a backcourt game. It has been very fun to watch and the quality of their shot making, ball placement, and groundstrokes has been higher than ever. Sampras often struggled with his backhand for instance. This led to inconsistent ground stroke play and shorter points. Lately when I watch a match I am just amazed at how few errors many of these guys make compared to shots they get in.

Plus Federer's style is so graceful to watch. He glides around the court and hits his shots with perfect technique. Watching him play on grass is 2nd to none.

Since him and Nadal have met 6 times in finals over the last 2-3 years, thoughs matches have been some of the best finals we have gotten to see in years.
 
To some degree. But many of the matches along the way are struggles. Think about the French this year. Roger had to win in 5 sets in the 4th round and semis just to get to the final. He was down two sets to love in the 4th round match and then down 2 sets to 1 in the semis match. Those matches were far from cakewalks and much in doubt halfway through them. Nobody was at home just knowing 100% that Federer was going to win and bored during those matches.

Also the 6 finals between him and Nadal had seem some incredibly tough matches. If you assumed Roger would just win them all then you would be wrong.....he only won 1 of them.
 
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