Roger Federer-Greatest of All Time

Roger Federer is an inspiration to me. He is the embodiment of perfection. Not only is his tennis the most beautiful sight I have ever seen on a tennis court, but as a person I like him very much as well. He is a straight forward, honest guy, and a happy person. He is kind of old school in the sense that he still has certain values, and he is quite a humble guy. The thing about Roger's tennis is that there is really no limit to it. Even a great like Pete Sampras had certain limits to his tennis, and he was labelled as having a boring personality as well.

You can't say these things about Roger. On the tennis court you never quite know what to expect from him. In every match he plays he seems to come up with an ingenious shot that he hasn't played before, and his game is utterly graceful and beautiful to watch. It's like watching poetry in motion. I love how easy he makes the game look and how utterly dominant he has been. He is just samshing all the records and going where no man has gone before. For Roger it is about the quest for perfection, and by winning the career grand slam this year and beating Sampras' grand slam record he has pretty much achieved perfection.

Yet he is not done yet. He is 27 now and he still has time to break more records. The fact that he is achieving perfection is a real inspiration to me. It makes me think that there is such a thing as perfection, and it makes me want to achieve the same thing. Yet Roger doesn't take himself too seriously. After winning his 15th grand slam title recently, he was asked whether he was the happiest man on earth, to which he replied no. He said that tennis is just a game and not everything in life. He also said that breaking the records are not the most important thing to him, but rather the love of the game.

I just love how complete Roger is in tennis. He can adapt to any surface. By winning the French Open he completed the career grand slam, winning a grand slam on all the surfaces. His technique is just perfect, he can hit with spin and he can flatten his strokes out, depending on what the conditions require. He can beat his opponents in any number of ways. When one game plan does not work, he just switches to another. He can play a defensive and attacking game equally well, although he is naturally an attacking player. He is pretty much invincible in that way. What more is there to say!?

The debate of who is the greatest tennis player of all time may go on forever. Many people think a real GOAT cannot be determined. There is different eras in tennis where there is things like competition, technology and court surface that was different in these eras. That makes it hard to determine a true a GOAT, and maybe impossible. But there can defnitely be made a strong case for Roger Federer, especially because of what he has achieved of late.

After being seemingly down and out he has now come back to complete the career grand slam by winning the French Open, and he also became the first man in history to win 15 grand slam titles after winning Wimbledon for a 6th time. Many people were contesting Roger's GOAT status because before this year he had never won the French Open, and it looked more and more that he would never win it. Yet he pulled off the impossible this year when he finally won it.

And now that he has won Wimbledon again he has the most grand slam titles in history, the single most important determinant of a GOAT. Yet even now there are still things left for Roger to achieve, and he has time to do it. Who knows how many grand slam titles he can still win? He is only 27 and can still compete for grand slams for a long time. He has won 3 of the last 4 grand slams and made one final, so there is no sign of slowing down. But there will always be people who will finds a reason for him not to be the GOAT.



Some people are for instance saying that his head-to-head record with Nadal makes him unworthy of being the GOAT. But there is no substance to that argument really. First of all the rivalry is not finished yet, so it makes no sense to come to a conclusion at this point. Although Nadal leads Roger 13-7 in head-to-heads currently, 12 of those meetings were on clay, Nadal's favorite surface. You will never have a player that is the GOAT on all surfaces, and Nadal is the GOAT on clay most probably.

Therefor you cant blame Roger for losing so many times to Nadal on clay. The problem is when it comes to Roger's favorite surfaces, Nadal usually doesnt make it far enough in the tournament to meet Roger. If they met 12 times on fast hard courts the head-to-head situation would have been very different. Also when Roger lost to Rafa at Wimbledon and the Australian Open he had health problems. I could go on but it's obvious there is no substance to that argument for anyone who understand tennis.

Ultimately the GOAT is a personal thing. For some people there is no GOAT, while for others it's Rod Laver or Pete Sampras. For me it is Roger Federer, and that is all that matters for me.

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.

After Roger won the French Open and completed the career grand slam, he has now gone on to win Wimbledon and pass Pete Sampras' grand slam record of 14 titles! What a monumental year this has turned out to be for Roger, and that after a shaky start to 2009 and people starting to write him off. After the French Open triumph Roger decided not to play his usual warm up tournament on grass in Halle, and he decided to rest. At the start of Wimbledon it looked to have done him good as he started off in confident fashion.

The French Open win obviously gave him a load of confidence and during Wimbledon he looked to be back to his devastating best. Especially in the quarter final and semi-finals where he beat huge serving Ivo Karlovic and a resurgent Tommy Haas both in straight sets. In the final against Andy Roddick it was tough going though and Roger wasn't playing at his best level. This was understandable as he was going where no man has gone before and there was so much riding on that match.



In the end he ran out a 5-7 7-6(6) 7-6(5) 3-6 16-14 victor, claiming a record 15th grand slam title in the process. With it he also became only the fourth man in the open era to win the French Open and Wimbledon double in the same year, and he has now reclaimed the nr. 1 spot in the ATP rankings. It couldn't have been a more fitting finale. All the legends were there to watch history being made, even Pete Sampras flew from his home in the US to come see his record being broken.

Sampras afterwards named Roger the GOAT again, as he did after the French Open. And few would dispute that fact. But lets give Roger a chance to finish his career. He is only 27 and he will play at least untill the Olympic Games in 2012. That should give him a chance to break some more records and make sure that no one can ever dispute his GOAT status. But for now this is a huge moment in the career of Roger, surely the biggest. He has now fulfilled the undeniable talent that he always had and broken the most important record in tennis.

What a legend!