Is Roger Federer the greatest player of all time? NO
The Age
Tuesday July 7, 2009
AS ROD Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras sat quietly in the royal box of Wimbledon's centre court, watching as the Swiss master set about cleaning up any remaining record these men had a slipping grip on, one record continues to elude Federer that has nothing to do with history.Not only is it a record that blemishes his almost perfect decade on the tour, it's one that might keep him from a best-ever moniker. As we indulge in conversation about who would come up trumps should these great men play each other in their prime - Federer versus Sampras, Sampras versus Borg, Borg versus Laver - the record that Federer cannot seem to attain is a winning record against a man still playing the game today.For years, Federer danced around the grass, hardcourt and rebound ace without a worthy adversary - he was a foe-less hero and he was racking up the stats. We never saw him tested and we never saw how deep he could dig.After a few years of pure dominance, the foe came, in the form of a Spaniard four years his junior. In the history of the sport, all the legends that have landed a kiss on a piece of kitchenware have dealt with an adversary of seemingly equal ability but with contrasting particulars and personalities - the big serve versus the powerful return, the serve-volley versus the ground-stroker, the quiet achiever versus the loud-mouth - it's what has made us stay up till all hours enduring John Newcombe's commentary.And for the men sitting courtside on Sunday afternoon, they may have dominated the stats, but they also dominated all worthy opponents - no one came close to Laver, Sampras had Agassi's measure on four out of five grand slam finals and won their head to head 20-14, and Borg beat Jimmy Connors in 15 of their 23 matches.But for Federer, Rafael Nadal is proving a much tougher adversary, beating Federer in five out of their seven grand slam meetings and leading their head-to-head match-up 13-7.Granted, many of their matches have been on clay, but even when you take clay out of the occasion, Federer only edges Nadal by one victory. Their two most recent battles, the Australian and Wimbledon finals, have gone Rafa's way.
© 2009 The Age