Federer's Greatness No Gimme
Roger Federer is the most dominant athlete on the planet, and he’s also the most overrated. The level of competition he faces in men’s tennis today is a joke. Lleyton Hewitt is too small, Andy Roddick’s a one-trick pony with a great serve but not much else, Marat Safin is a total head case with the game to compete with Federer but the focus and determination of a six-year-old with ADD, and Blake, Nalbandian, and Ginepri are all second tier players at best. The only current player who’s at all special is Rafael Nadal, a clay court specialist who beats Federer every year at the French Open, yet isn’t nearly as good on grass or hard courts. Which means this: every time Federer shows up at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, he might as well be playing the ball boys because the other players in the tournament just aren’t that good. On top of that, Federer’s always the number one seed which guarantees he’ll play a string of tomato cans until he reaches at least the semifinals. Each major, he’ll only have to play one or two semi-challenging matches to win the title.
Federer’s padding his career resume against inferior talent. If only he could’ve played these last several years against truly great players like Sampras, McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, Borg, or Laver. Then we’d know how good Federer really is. Against Nadal, who’s on his way to being remembered as an all-time great on clay, Federer is simply no match. Would this be the case if Fed had to face Sampras each year at Wimbledon, or Lendl or Connors each September at Flushing Meadows? Maybe. It certainly would make it much more difficult for Federer to rack up grand slam titles like he’s collecting seashells on a beach. And the crown of Greatest Tennis Player Ever would likely stay firmly planted on the red hair of Rod Laver where it belongs, not awarded to Federer for a career of drubbing pushovers.