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The Greatest Of All-Time? Yes.

Posted on June 9th, 2009 9:37am by Bob Sturm
Filed under Sturm, Tennis

roger_federer1I am certainly a man with a wandering sports mind, and during the sports year that sends me in all sorts of directions. One effect is that I end up watching certain events in sports that I don’t know much about, but I have built it into my annual calendar. Such is the case in tennis, with the French Open Men’s Final, the Wimbledon Final, and generally a few nights of US Open tennis the week before Labor Day.

I don’t know tennis. I enjoy it, but I cannot name 5 men’s players, I bet. It is enjoyable, but because of sports clutter, there just isn’t a time where I can dedicate 2 weeks to a major, and therefore I swoop in for a few championship finals.

Which brings us to what happened this weekend. Roger Federer won his 14th major, and his first ever French Open. This completed his career grand slam, an accomplishment that only Andre Agassi had since the 1960′s. Consider all of the amazing players of the last 40 years to not close that deal.

Over the last few years, I have really been intrigued at this athlete’s pursuit of history. Since I very much enjoy athletic greatness, this pursuit has been worth the effort to tune in quite a bit. The emergence of Rafael Nadal has added to the intrigue because he seems to give Federer fits.

Are you also interested in greatness? Try to digest these two paragraphs from his wikipedia page:

Federer holds numerous records in the sport, including 14 Grand Slam men’s singles titles (3 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 5 Wimbledon, 5 US Open), equalling the all-time record with Pete Sampras. Federer is only the sixth male player to achieve a career Grand Slam and the only player in history to reach the final of each Grand Slam tournament at least four times. Federer has made it to an unprecedented 20 consecutive Grand Slam singles semi-finals starting with the 2004 Wimbledon Championships, progressing to the final 17 times in that timespan with the only exceptions being the 2005 French Open, the 2005 Australian Open and the 2008 Australian Open. In addition, Federer has won 12 grand slam singles titles during this timeframe.

As of June 2009, Federer holds the record for reaching the semi-finals of 20 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments and has equaled Ivan Lendl’s record of reaching 19 Grand Slam finals (non-consecutive). He is the only male to have played in the singles final of all four Grand Slams two years consecutively. As a result of Federer’s success in tennis, he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for 4 consecutive years (2005–08).

Those facts are just amazing. Is it Tiger Woods without the same American popularity? If he was one of us – say from Atlanta, instead of the finest Swiss athlete, would we be obsessed with him?

Here is a chart of the top 5 major winners in tennis history:

Rank Name Major Wins Major Finals
1. Roger Federer 14 19
2. Pete Sampras 14 18
3. Roy Emerson 12 15
4. Rod Laver 11 17
5. Bjorn Borg 11 16

Table Tutorial

Absolutely remarkable to look at these staggering numbers.

When considering that Laver, Emerson, Agassi, and Federer are the only 4 tennis players since World War 2 to win the career slam, I was curious what cost some of the other greats:

* Pete Sampras: 0 French Opens, 0 French Open Finals.
* Bjorn Borg: 0 Australian, 0 US Open
* Ivan Lendl: 0 Wimbledon
* Jimmy Conners: 0 French
* John McEnroe: 0 Australian, 0 French
* Stefan Edberg: 0 French
* Boris Becker: 0 French
* Rafael Nadal: 0 US Open (it’s pretty early)

For those of us who do not understand or really follow tennis, it is sure interesting that someone like Pete Sampras or Roger Federer can be so dominant to win 5 straight majors on one surface, but move him to the clay in France, and they cannot ever win a title (Until Sunday).

Here is the year-by-year, major-by-major rundown since Federer began winning majors in 2003:

Year Australian French Wimbledon US Open
2003 Agassi Ferrero Federer Roddick
2004 Federer Gaudio Federer Federer
2005 Safin Nadal Federer Federer
2006 Federer Nadal Federer Federer
2007 Federer Nadal Federer Federer
2008 Djokovic Nadal Nadal Federer
2009 Nadal Federer – –

Table Tutorial

Pretty remarkable stuff. As we head to Wimbledon, We see that Nadal may not play due to a knee injury, and that Federer could possibly become the first to ever win 15 majors. You may not know tennis, either. But, if you love greatness, Roger Federer deserves a little attention this summer.

Federer commercial I have never seen…

Federer gets the giggles

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17 Comments to “The Greatest Of All-Time? Yes.”
  • Craig @ June 9th, 2009 at 10:09 am

    Fed is the best, Period. Tiger does not match him because Tiger is a front-runner and he does not win from ehind very often; Federer can win from behind, win ahead and he is the absolute best. It is unfortunate he is not from the US because he would be all over TV right now. He is the best ever to play tennis and I think he is the best period with Tiger a close second…

  • mame @ June 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am

    Did not expect a Boris Becker mention on today’s entry. What a pleasant surprise.

  • idiotbox @ June 9th, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Pretty sure that is Murray Hewitt in the Nike commercial with RF….

  • Ehren @ June 9th, 2009 at 10:38 am

    The age old question..Best Ever. I have a hard time annoiting someone as the greatest of all time when there really isn’t anyone else of note in the sport. Now if Federer played with Sampras and still had all the titles then there’s a case to be made.

  • becca @ June 9th, 2009 at 10:50 am

    i would argue that nadal is a competition. but some might say it’s kinda a lefty v tiger-like thing.

  • J @ June 9th, 2009 at 10:53 am

    Rod Laver is greatest all time. I would like to point out Laver missed 5yrs , because of the Open Era. He is the only tennis player to have twice won all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year. If it wasn’t for the 5 year hiatus Laver might have won 20 titles.

  • Ehren @ June 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am

    @becca: good arguement! i just had a hard time putting him in sampras class.

  • Ehren @ June 9th, 2009 at 11:45 am

    @becca: p.s.-maybe he wears a red thong!

  • Good Point @ June 9th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    “If he was one of us – say from Atlanta, instead of the finest Swiss athlete, would we be obsessed with him?”

    Um, who’s second on that list? Were we obsessed with him?

  • Greg @ June 9th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    There is no doubt that Federer is absolute greatness, but everyone needs to slow down on this best ever talk until Nadal’s career is over.

    Nadal is only 23, has already won 4 French Opens, 1 Wimbledon and 1 Australian and an Olympic gold medal, something Fed hasn’t done. He is also 13-7 against Federer, 5-2 in Grand Slam finals.

    In the end he may not come close to the grand slam count Federer winds up at but let’s just tap the brakes a little bit.

  • becca @ June 9th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    here, here, greg! that’s what i was trying to say earlier. greg did it better, though

  • peppersquad @ June 9th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    Bob is the first guy to sports bully bandwagon fans whose fav teams are the Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, and Red Wings, Yet Bob does the same with Federer and Tiger, oh btw his fav basketball players are Jordan, Kobe, and Lebron.

    I dare sports bully the sports bully? Yes

  • Old Man @ June 9th, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    Hard to argue for a GOAT unless they win on ALL surfaces.

    @ J

    Laver is the greatest of his era but not the GOAT. Your rationale could be applied to any of the players in question.

    For example, if Rafa Nadal wasn’t playing, then Federer would have at least another 6 Slam wins and consecutive Grand Slams in 06-07. How could you compare that with anyone else looking at his entire body of work?

    Comparing eras is a difficult animal. I have been watching tennis since the WCT at Moody Coliseum and in my opinion, Roger is the best I’ve ever seen (and I have seen all the players discussed).

    @Greg – I am a huge Rafa fan, but I am concerned that his body will not last to challenge Federer’s record when all is said and done. His refusal to quit on a point, his unorthodox strokes and his chronic knee issues can lead one to think that as he gets older he will be a factor on clay and not any other surface. I am not sure he can ever win the U.S. Open.

    I think the monkey is off of Roger’s back now and he will be extremely difficult to beat the last two majors.

  • bman @ June 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    @ Craig: check your stats chief. Tiger has 20 wins where he was down after 54 holes and won. That’s 30% of his total wins. Granted, majors are a different story but you can’t say the guy doesn’t know how to win when he’s down. Second point, you can’t claim that Federer is the outright best because Tiger has, in most cases, 10-15 competitros that are still in the tournament up until Sunday afternoon. Federer only has to win 7 matches, in the case of the French Open, of which 2 of those opponents are in the top 10.

  • Greg @ June 9th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    @Old Man – Injuries are my biggest concerns about Nadal too. I wouldn’t mind seeing him sit out Wimbledon to try and get his knees right to go for his career grand slam at the US Open this year.

  • Bob Sturm @ June 9th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    @ peppersquad – I trust you see a difference between jumping on a cheering bandwagon and writing a statistical study of Roger Federer’s accomplishments or appreciating how good Michael Jordan is. Quite clearly, I have never offered a cheer of joy or tear of despair from Kobe, Lebron, or Roger. I just appreciate greatness and viewing it as often as possible.

    So while I welcome the bullying, I am not sure this is a very sound case you present.

  • MGM - Federer, Chestnut, and McNair @ July 6th, 2009 at 10:02 am

    [...] I spent considerable time a month ago, after he won the French Open for the first time of his career that Roger Federer is the greatest [...]