Sunday, June 7, 2009

Federer-the greatest of all??


Roger Federer finally realising his dream of winning French Open

Federer finally scaled the everest by winning the coveted French title to win all 4grand slams and also equal Pete Sampras tally of 14 Grand slams.Though the victory didnt come against his old foe Nadal,he still must be over the moon for conquering his conquerors conqueror..

I seriously doubted him from winning the french riviera especially after the pummeling he received at the hands of the Raging Bull from Mallorca in last years most lop sided final of all time,but destiny has its own way of saying things and it said that Fedex will win it and he did..:)

Just a small gist of achievements of this glittering man from Switzerland:
* This is his 14th Grand Slam Title thus emulating Pete Sampras tally.
* This is his 19th Grand Slam Final.Its beleived only Ivan Lendl has more finals to his credit with 21.
* This is his (beleive it or not) 20th Consecutive appearance in a Grand Slam Semi Final.An absolutely unbeleivable achievement truly underlying his consistency.
*He becomes only the 6th Man to win all 4 Grand Slams.(Last was Agassi)

So is the Fed Express the greatest to have ever played the game??
His achievements certainly point to the affirmative.

Only 2 things go against him..
He has never achieved the Golden Slam(ie winning all 4 slams in a year).Rod Laver has done it twice in 1962 and 1969.
He has never really got the better of his bitter arch rival Rafael Nadal coming second best on many occassions.(especially on the hallowed turf of clay)

I doubt he will ever achieve the golden slam but beating his biggest rival Nadal in the French Open Final will be the icing on the cake for this illustrious man full of wonderful achievements.
Hypothetically speaking if only Nadal were not present in this generation,nothing would have stopped him from being the greatest of all time.
He would have not only won the Golden Slam,he would have also had 20 Grand Slams in his kitty(4 continous French Opens(2004-2008),Wimbledon 2008 and Australian Open 2009

So till he fixes the missing parts of the jigsaw puzzle,debates will continue and questions will always be raised as to whether he is the greatest of all but to my eyes he is the simply the greatest.(esp.after winning Roland Garros which i seriously doubted)
Just a simple point to substantiate my view-no one in the history of the game has been so consistent over a period of time and this alone is testimony to prove all his detractors!!