Roger Federer-Greatest of All Time

The debate of who is the greatest tennis player of all time will probably go on forever. Yet in the end it's virtually impossible to determine who is the true GOAT. But it doesn't mean we can't speculate, it is after all a fun subject. The most important thing is not to get emotional about the subject, because in the end every fan of a great player want their player to be the GOAT. This pretty much disqualifies me from taking part in the GOAT debate. OK just kidding :-)

Obviously Roger has to be one of the greats of the game, I don't think anyone would argue with that. He would definitely have to be in the top tier when it comes to all time greats. The others who could also be in that tier would be Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras. Laver won the calender year grand slam two time, once in the amature ear and once in the open era. Don Budge did it once in the amature era. Those were the only two guys that could do the calender slam.

Many people would contend that Laver is the GOAT, but he played in such a different era that it is really hard to compare him with someone like Roger. The same for Bjorn Borg. Borg won five Wimbledon titles and six French Open titles. He retired at the age of 26 though and he surely could have added to his eleven grand slam titles had he not retired. But once again in the day he played wooden racquets was still used on tour, and tennis wasn't nearly as professional as these days.

With the change of equipment and prize money tennis have change drastically from those days. So as a solution to determine the GOAT I havedivided tennis into two different era's, the modern era and the pre modern era. The modern era is pretty much since the equiment started changing, when wooden racquets were substituted with aluminium and graphite racquets. To me this was the start of a big change in tennis, so I decided to draw the dividing line there.

The GOAT of the pre modern era would have to go to Laver. I think most people would agree with that. He won a total of eleven grand slam titles as Borg did, six in the amature era and five in the open era. Unlike Borg Laver won the Australian Open and the US Open as well and completed the grand slam twice, which should surely give him the edge. In the modern era for me it's between Roger and Sampras. Sampras has won the most grand slam titles ever with fourteen titles.

He did however never won the French Open, which is leaves a hole in his legacy. Roger have never won the French either. But no one would deny the fact that Roger was a much better player on clay then Sampras was. He has clearly been the second best player on clay behind Nadal, who is arguably the greatest player on clay of all time. He has made the final at Roland Garros three times and the semi-final once, losing to Nadal on all four occasions.

Sampras could manage only one French Open semi-final. Considering this Roger can already make a claim to be the modern era GOAT, even though he still only have thirteen grand slam titles to his name. But in the end I would like to see Roger at least equal Sampras' record of fourteen slams, and preferably pass it. It's not been easy going for him of late and nothing is guaranteed, but I would think that surely he has at least one more grand slam title left in him.

That would make Roger the clear modern era GOAT in my mind.

After a difficult 2008 season and start to the 2009 season Roger has gone on to win the French Open and complete the career grand slam. After a difficult 2008 Roger had slowly worked his way back to form and ended the year by winning the US Open at the end of 2008. Roger seemed to be getting back on top of things, but then he started 2009 by losing to his arch rival Rafa in another dramatic match in the final of the Australian Open. After losing his Wimbledon crown to Rafa in 2008 this was another devastating loss for Roger and he couldn't hold back the tears of disappointment at the prize giving ceremony.

It seemed like his nemesis Rafa had put the final nail in Roger's coffin, and the tennis world was starting to wonder if Roger could ever come back from this loss. Roger then took six weeks off from the tour to help a nagging back injury to recover and to try and get over what happened in Australia. It didn't seem to do him much good as he suffered more devastating losses. First to Andy Murray in Indian Wells and then to Novak Djokovic in Miami, after which smashed his racquet into the court after all the frustartion of recent times. But the frustration would only continue for the Swiss as he then lost to his countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round of the first tournemant of the clay court season in Monte Carlo.



He did get married the week before though so he wasn't exactly well prepared. Roger then hit the practice courts harder then ever in preparation for the next event in Rome, where he would suffer another very tough loss against Novak Djokovic. This was the third match since the Australian Open where he looked to be in control of the match and then for some unknown reason lost the plot. But once again Roger hit the practice courts. There was one more event in Madrid left where he could hopefully gain some confidence before the start of the French Open. He took advantage of his favorable draw and would meet his nemesis Rafa in the final, but this time he turned the tables.

He beat Rafa in convincing fashion, and surely he had reached a turning point. He was playing at a level we didn't see from him in a long time and Rafa was starting to look vulnerable. So it was no surprise when Rafa lost in the fourth round of the French Open, the first match he lost there ever after being the hot favorite to beat Bjorn Borg's record of 4 consecutive Roland Garros titles. This was the ideal opportunity for Roger to win the one illusive title that he still had to add to his impressive list of titles. It wasn't easy going though. Against Tommy Haas in the fourth round he was on the brink of going out, but he was not going to be denied.



Roger went on to beat the player that upset Rafa, Robin Soderling, in a masterful display in the final to complete the career grand slam and equal Pete Sampras' grand slam record of 14 grand slam titles. But since Sampras could never win the French Open, Roger is now the greatest player in the history of the sport. The GOAT debate is over. There will always be people who say Rod Laver is the GOAT, but Laver played in an era where tennis wasn't nearly as competitive and professional as today. And Pete Sampras himself confirmed Roger as the GOAT. And there is no doubt in my mind that he is the GOAT either. Roger isn't done however.

He will be playing at least until the Olympics in 2012 and he will almost certainly win several more grand slam titles.