Roger Federer: What a 2012 French Open Title Would Mean for Fed-Ex's Legacy

After all he's done, you'd think that no 2012 tournament could possibly hold any weight over Roger Federer's distinguished legacy.

He was the No. 1 player in the world for 237 consecutive weeks. That's an ATP record. He's won 16 men's Grand Slam titles. That's an ATP record. He reached the semifinals or better in 23 consecutive Grand Slams. You guessed it; that's an ATP record too.

By many accounts, whenever he decides to retire, Roger Federer will go down as the greatest tennis player of all time.

And yet, there's a curious anomaly when you look closely at Federer's career stats. Here's how his 16 Grand Slam titles break down by tournament:

Wimbledon – 6

US Open – 5

Australian Open – 4

French Open – 1

It doesn't take a professional statistician to recognize the outlier in that set of data. Roger Federer only has one French Open title to his name.

Now, of course, this has more to do with Rafael Nadal's unprecedented dominance on clay than it does with Federer's own deficiencies in Roland Garros. Federer's lone win at the French Open (2009) is sandwiched between six championships for Nadal, four straight from 2005-2008 and the last two in 2010 and 2011. And in four of those six championships, it was Federer who Nadal beat in the tournament final.

But the problem wasn't just that he was getting beat; it was how he was getting beat. In 2008, Nadal took the Finals in straight sets: 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Federer won four games the whole match. He won zero in the last set. The greatest player of all time isn't supposed to roll over and die in a Grand Slam title––especially if it's the only one he has never taken home!

And here's where Federer's legacy hangs in the balance. The French Open was supposed to be his albatross. Up until 2009, it was the only crest he hadn't ascended to. It was the only psychological burden he had to bear.

And when he finally beat Nadal in 2009, that was all supposed to go away.

But it hasn't.

The pressure may have been temporarily assuaged, but it sure hasn't gone away.

Not now that Rafa has sauntered to two more French Open titles and especially not now that Federer looks up not just at Nadal, but also at Novak Djokovic in the World Tennis Rankings.

The 2012 French Open gives Federer an opportunity to do something he hasn't done since he first took the tennis world by storm: win when nobody expects him to.

This is supposed to Nadal's tournament. Federer got the monkey off his back in '09, so it would be easy for him to lose the fuel to his fire and concede the tournament to the man whose made his living on the clay.

But if he were to lay low in the weeds for a while, then pounce on his second French Open title when people least expect it?

Well that would be a feat deserving of the title "Greatest Player of All Time."