Roger Federer, on Sunday, won the only grand slam tennis title that has eluded him all his career. The French Open win also brought him level with tennis legend Pete Sampras in winning 14 grand slam titles. With Rafael Nadal injured with a knee problem, Federer has an excellent chance of reclaiming the Wimbledon trophy that had been his for so long.
Pundits say Federer will not only break Sampras’s record, he will also put it out of anyone else’s reach. Does the fact that R-Fed has won all four grand slam titles make him the greatest ever? Will he be able to create a record of grand slam titles that may never be broken?
After his recent grand slam victory at the French Open Roger Federer is now one slam win away to break Pete Sampras record 14 wins. Although it is always difficult to compare players of different era’s but Roger is close to be the best of the best Tennis world has so far seen!!!!
Although he is a great player of tennis but under the prevailing circumstances, I don’t rate him as the greatest ever tennis player produced by the game so far.
Nevertheless, it will not be surprising for me if he wins few more grand slam tournaments in the near future surpassing the record and magic number of 14.
It will be up to the future but neutral historians to decide after the retirement of RF if he could be crowned as the greatest ever tennis player in history. Right now, he is still playing quality and world class tennis and stands at the top of his playing career.
as an admirer of world atheletes and specially of a game like tennis, i do appreciate Federer. he plays exceptionally well maintaining grace and dignity. even Nadal’s coach recommended him RF’s gameplay to stay in the list for long. but this does not conclude that RF is the greatest player. He has given the world good tennis but now its time for a change. we already have Nadal moving up the list and he’ll rule the game.
well he is and all who are saying that the game has changed with new rackets are talking rubbish…if federer plays with new rackets so do his competitots n that nullifies any advantage…but i beleive the competition is even tougher now because now you need to be physically in supreme shape …also i think federers record of 20 semifinals in a row and 19 grandslam final apperances plus god knows hoe much he will add to that clearly make him the best to play the game.
Roger Federer is undoubtedly one of the greatest and perhaps the greatest tennis player hitherto. But, who knows future may produce a greater plaayer than he is. A few years ago, Pete Sampras was considered to be the greatest. Since benefits of technology are available to all players – winners and losers – we cannot justifiably give an edge to past payers vs. the present players in judging their overall performance. In my opinion, Federer will remain the greatest player until he is surpassed by another ‘Federer’ or ‘Sampras” of Tennis. In this material world, there is nothing ‘greatest ever’ as such.
Dear Proud Indian,
Vijay Amritraj was not a great player. He might have been a great Indian tennis player but internationally, he was pretty ordinary.
No, doubt he is the greatest of all times. Why not? because he takes the game as serious and as fun as well, Not like Pakistani Cricket Skipper who only plays for fun!
One more indicator that we are forgetting is longevity. RF has been in business for long time and progressed normally. He was not a sudden appearance like Boris Becker. Further more one can not always remain on top. Novak Djokovic won 2008 Australian open having beaten RF in Semi Final but that does not make him even great player and it does not affect RF’s greatness
If not the greatest, definitely ONE of the greatest that ever played the game !
I don’t think so. No doubt he is a great player and definitely one of the very greatest ever, but the greatest ever…. that’s over the top. To begin with, FedEx has very few great competitors to contend with, Rafa Nadal, Rusedski, ..and what’s more, he is blessed to be helped by the sophistication of today’s high tech rackets. To me Bjorn Borg remains the greatest ever followed by Pete Sampras. the incomparable Rod Laver and then u can never forget the one and only John McEnroe. Just look at this, Borg had several high class players to battle, Connors, Nastase, Tanner, Vijay Amritraj, Guillermo Vilas, Vitas Gerulitis, Ivan Lendl, and the great McEnroe. Likewise, Sampras had to battle Agassi, Becker, Edberg, Ivanacovic, and Courier. Still to be fair, FedEx is marvelous to watch with a complete all round game that’s poetic, rhythmic and pure class. He is one of the greatest ever.
Absolutely!
I love how he so unabashedly wants trash all opponents!
Yes, he is the best of current era, but it is difficult to compare him with likes of Bjorn Borg and the likes because they never played with carbon fiber rackets…or did not have the technology to analyze their opponents game play using state of the art softwares. So yeah, Federer is the best of current times, and maybe…maybe of all time
well we have to see that federer has been playing against nadal who after a couple of years will be named the greatest player too.provided that he completes a career grand slam. pete sampras only had to face andre aggasi. but here we have to world class players nadal & federer. we have to see for two more years. if nadal beats federer in wimbledon this year and goes on to win US open .then federer cant be said as the greatest player
Time and the Opening has certainly been crafted to Roger’s plan. It’s now up to him to avail this opportunity and stamp RF as the greatest ever.
History had been made by great players like Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Pete & Andre for a simple fact that they were great tennis athletes and its took very little of their God Gifted physical ability to win Grand Slams. For these great players it was always overcoming the mental aspect. The rest of the players have to worry about the physical aspect as well.
U just cant compare Sampras and Federer simply because game has changed enormously since Sampras as players have much more shots to offer.
i would definitely go with RF, especially on back hand since i have not seen any player hitting such a great backhand again and again.
and it was his beautiful backhand down the line which helped him save a matchpoint in wilmbledon 2008 in fourth set against Nadal
Federer is the greatest when you are talking about all-time but I disagree if people call him the greatest at present time. Who is ranked world number one? NADAL
Even though Nadal lost the French Open, he has won 6 grand slam titles in 5 years and he is still only 23.
One can imagine a player perhaps because of his skills/fitness to beat federer’s record
In the future. But it’s hard to imagine a player doing it all with so much grace as
Federer i think. His patience/tolerance/facial and physical expressions, along with his Low tone speech is unique.
well well…its very true he is one of the best players but again every era has produced its best player and every next generation has beaten the previous record and set a new one. this is what competition is and kicks the game. i purely think he is the legend of this tennis but again there is some one being prepared who wil be set up his own record. ist great to see people at there best like federer and nadal. good luck!!!
When one compare RF with lkes of sempras one should consider that none of great were invincible as one commentator said. Other criteria was playing style. His style was more rythmetic and classic and tectical unlike RN who has aggressive approach. one can hardly find subtlties and beauty of game which RF present. Winning a major in absence of other great is not a unique phenomenon. It happened to all and this fact cannot undermine the greatness of RF.
People forget that he also claimed victory while playing against likes of Samopras, hewitt, and nadal. And if he makes a really world class player look only to be a second class player while playing against RF then its not RFs problem. It is his mastery that he makes his apponant second class.
I think he is unarguably the greatest.
And then Nadal will also get old and some other guy whose been playing since before he was born will become great. It happens in all sports.
The term “greatest player” is a fallacy. You cannot compare abilities and levels of greatness across timelines that see changes in technology, rules, etc. Sajjad is right here.
Fed is one of the greats of his time. His time is over. He will now be second fiddle to a fit Nadal. Nadal has much more tennis yet and I believe will really come into his own soon. And he will then be the greatest of his time.
i think he is going to be remembered long for his achievments towards tennis but it too early to say that he is the greatest ever may be after some times he will but not at the moment
Certainly Federer has proved to be best ever! I believe he is made for tennis & he offers much more than the sport to people..
One of the greatest u can say.one should keep in mind nadal wz injured thats y he lifted the rg crown.just wait 4 nadal to bounce back.
Without a doubt he is one of the legends of the game.Hopefully he will get his winning streak back this year.Cant wait to see him wininning at Wimbeldon this year. Go Fedrer Go.