Tennis: The Greatness of Roger Federer

Rarely do I use hyperbole and even rarer is my crowning of today's stars and teams as better than the legends of yesteryear. However, in today's sports, we are seeing two undeniably pantheon-great athletes. As the years go by, it has become harder and harder to deny Tiger Woods and Roger Federer are among the best athletes to ever play their sports, and neither are even out of their prime yet.

I want your thoughts on two issues. First, which of those athletes are more impressive, dominant, or historically significant in their sport? Second, on Federer alone, after his complete demolition of one of the top ranked players in the world this morning, where does he rank with the all time greats?

It is my opinion that not only will Federer end up the greatest tennis player ever (Both in stats and the ability to defeat all tennis players that came before him), but he might - nay, WILL - go down as a top 10 athlete of all time. Thoughts?


I agree with you. Roger Federer could be one of the greatest athletes ever. He's almost technically perfect on a tennis court and absolutely dominates even the highest levels of competition. Early this morning, arouned 3:30am EST, Federer was set to face Andy Roddick in the semi-final match of the Australian Open. In the days leading up to the match, Roddick had been playing probably the best tennis of his life and maybe the best of anyone in the tournament. As a casual tennis fan, I was excited.I set my DVR and had a plan to wake up at 7 (two hours early) to tune in.

So what happened? Well first of all, I woke up at 8 thanks to an alarm clock mishap (i.e. setting my alarm for 7pm instead of 7am, a mistake I make way too often) and zipped through the pre-match stuff, hoping to creatively fast forward through commercial breaks and less interesting portions of the match. And then Federer broke Roddick's serve IN THE FIRST GAME. Roddick has one of the best serves on the tour mind you and it had been great all tournament long. And Federer lost the first two points of the game. Then, down 30-0, Federer ripped four points in a row off attacks from the baseline against a man who has the fastest serve in history. It looked like he made a whimsical decision to start winning points and was following through on that.

To make a long story short, Federer won the match 6-4, 6-0, 6-2. I finished the sped up version in half an hour and was early to work for the first time in a few months, that's how quick it went. His domination of the match was freakish, even to Federer: "I had one of these days when everything just worked, I was unbeatable. It's just unreal. I was playing out of my mind. I am shocked myself." He played so well, HE SURPRISED HIMSELF. Unbelievable. It's tough to compare Federer to champions past, but if you consider how dominant he is over his contemporaries and how the average tennis player has only gotten stronger and faster, he makes a serious case for himself as the best ever. And the best part about Federer is how he makes what he does look so effortless. It looks like he's in warm-up mode all match long.

As for the Roger vs. Tiger debate, I think it's terribly unfair. Their sports are so different. While I will say that Tiger is more historicaly significant for his sport (think back to the golf-splosion of the late 90's), what Roger Federer is doing on the tennis court seems more impressive to me. There's a reason tennis player often burnout at young ages: it's a very physically demanding game with absolutely no off-season. Maintaining that level of play for that long can only be compared to my epic Norwich Little Career (where I hit .000 as a 9 year old, once called for my coach after an opposing player squared to bunt, had two balks where I dropped the ball mid-windup, and kneed a friend of mine in the groin on a play at first base.) Except maybe the opposite. You mentioned top ten athletes of all time and I'm going to take the bait, Ian. Give me your list. I'll start you off: 1) Drew Bledsoe, 2) Nomar Garciaparra-Hamm, 3)...


Federer is the greatest tennis player ever and I'll tell you why. I always thought the most effective argument for our current athletes being greater than their predecessors is that with an ever improving world of science, technology, and medicine, today's athletes are simply better trained and therefore more talented than ever. Thus, even if they are putting up similar numbers to legends, they are doing it against steaper competition.

The premise of that last statement, of course, is untrue. There are many more barometers to an athlete's capabilities than their sheer physical ability. One must always keep in mind the dominance an athlete has over the peers of their era. In fact, that might be the single greatest characteristic of excellence: How much better you are than everyone else that you compete against.

Roger Federer is the embodiment of the characteristics of all-time greatness. His numbers are eye-popping and record setting. The domination of his peers is absolute and unquestioned. And those very peers have had more advantages than anyone in the history of the sport. For all we know, if it wasn't for Federer, there would be an epic struggle in the sport of tennis between the likes of Roddick, Nadal, and Hewitt. In twenty years, we might have been talking about a handful of greats that won all the majors for a ten-year stretch. We'd say they took the baton from Pete and Andre and kept tennis great. But we won't be saying that. We'll be saying Roger Federer dominated a field of players who won few majors. Inevitably, some who didn't see him play will pontificate on his lack of greatness in a field void of stars.

After last this morning's dismantling (I saw the last four games live), it got me thinking about Roddick, and how for a few years, he's had the same look on his face whenever he faces Federer:






I am by no means a Roddick cheerleader. I was an Andre guy, I was a Gustavo Kuerten guy, now I'm a James Blake guy. But Roddick is undeniably a special talent. He has talent coming out of his ears, and from what I hear, a work ethic to match. His serve and forehand are picture perfect in their exposition of pure power. If Federer decided to be a soccer player, Roddick might be going down as the great tennis player of the generation. But in fifteen years, we'll remember him as we remember Michael Stich and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. It's almost tragic.


There's a lot more to be said about Federer-Tiger. Perhaps we'll leave that for Monday, as both will be competing on Sunday for a championship.

As for top 10 athletes of all time, that is a VERY intriguing list. I propose we give that some thought and reveal our lists next Tuesday or Wednesday, before our Superbowl ramp up.




That is an excellent picture of Roddick. Since everyone is probably sufficiently bored with tennis, I'd like to announce the results of yesterday's "Battle of the Bands." It's sad to say but a song I love dearly, Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart," was narrowly edged out by the much more culturally relevant Arrested Development rendition of "Everyday People," three and a half stars to three and three quarters stars. Thank you to the zero people that voted.