First of all congratulations to Federer, no-one would disagree he is an amazing versatile all-court player and thoroughly deserves his achievements. I think he is the greatest player ever. Rafa is doing really well too, he is quite a bit younger though. I would agree with what Murray has said about Roger and Rafa being the 2 best players ever.
All this obsession over Roger’s head to head with Rafa is irrelevant – he has beaten Rafa at Wimbledon, clay courts -Hamburg and Madrid Masters and hard courts too. Rafa has also been beaten by Djokovic and Murray.
I believed in Federer last year even when the media started writing him off despite him coming to the final of every Grand Slam bar the Australian (soon after Federer had glandular fever).
I would agree with Mats Wilander that Roger Federer is a fantastic and probably the 3rd or 4th best clay court player ever (after Rafa, Borg and possibly Kuerten) which is also an amazing tribute.
There’s no doubt of Federer’s place in history, his remarkable consistency over the last 5 years is unsurpassed. His all round game is certainly more impressive than Sampras’s, who’s modern day record he beat. Even before the French win, he’d been in the final twice and semis once, Sampras hadn’t made the final.
Rod Laver with 2 real grand slams was the best of his era, but it’s difficult to compare eras, the equipment is so much more advanced and makes for a different game.
I don’t think Federer’s win his cheapened by not having to play Nadal, Nadal was in the tournament and was beat, he can only beat who he plays.
All that said, there’s little doubt he’s been equaled and overhauled by Nadal in the last year, and Fed has broken his French duck in probably his least impressive season of form since he first won Wimbledon.
To paraphrase a quote I heard recently (believed to be from Jimmy Connors)…”‘in the modern game there are clay-court specialists, grass-court specialists, hard-court specialists and then there is Roger Federer”. And I whole-heartedly agree with him.
Federer really is an all round superb player. He and Nadal are a credit to tennis and sport in general – the way they behave, the mutual respect they have for each other and how they don’t run the other down. All sportsmen should follow their fantastic example. I am really glad to hear Nadal will defend his title at Wimbledon – it would not be the same without him or Federer. Federer was so close to winning last year, it was an epic final and Nadal deserved his victory. Here’s to another epic final between them both with Federer reclaiming the throne.
Federer became the 6th player to win a career slam of titles, it won’t be a great surprise to see Nadal become the 7th two tournaments later for all his poor record at Flushing Meadows to date.
Bye,
Dipanjan
