Federer The Greatest? Yes. Federer The Greatest.

Now that Roger Federer has completed the much awaited career Grand Slam, and added the missing Major trophy to his shelf, it would be appropriate to see how he would compare across surfaces with other all time greats. Not that he needs a comparative analysis to cement his legend: far from it.

Clay:

It’s no big secret that this is the one surface across which Federer has no complete control. It has also something to do with the fact that he plays in the era of arguably the greatest clay court player of all time. But then, leaving Nadal aside, nobody has come remotely near to beating Federer on clay courts. Had he not won at Rolland Garros this year(which in perspective will probably end up being his only real chance, seeing it would be too much to ask Nadal to lose in the fourth round next year), he would probably have gone down as the greatest player never to win the French Open. Then again, had Nadal turned to football at age 10, Federer would probably have won five consecutive French Open titles by now.

His forehand, the “greatest shot in tennis”, is very effective on clay, but it is his backhand, which, while still being world class, is the weaker of his ground shots. So who would challenge him on clay across the eras? Men like Muster, Kuerten, Lendl were all extremely effective claycourters, but it is doubtful that they could have managed to upend Federer with his versatility. So that leaves just two men who would have left even the Greatest gasping for his breath, with their supreme clay court skills.

So since he is obviously not the greatest, neither the least, the question arises: who is/are?

Who? Bjorn Borg (6 French Open titles), Rafael Nadal (4 French Open titles)

Grass:

The person who has won the second most number of consecutive Open era matches on grass is Borg with 41. The man with the most is Federer. He has 65 consecutive wins. That tells a lot about his pedigree on grass, it does. Barring Nadal, nobody has even come within a few miles of matching; forget beating, the Swiss maestro on his home turf, in his era. The serve, that off forehand, the magical backhand pass (remember the Greatest backhand pass of all time? Down 7-8 in the 4^th set tie breaker, Championship point against Nadal in the 2008 final?) are all the stuff of Wimbledon legend.

Grass is Federer’s unquestionable kingdom: it is where he assumes his most majestic role, and it is from where he began his conquest of the world.

When we look down the Wimbledon Hall of Fame, there seems to be only two players worth even mentioning in the same breath as Fedex: two long retired gentlemen named Borg and Sampras. Borg, like Federer won 5 consecutive Wimbledons, lost in the final of the sixth, and then quit tennis. While Federer has not quit tennis, the parallels are striking. Yet the most dazzling grass court machinery belonged to Sampras, winner of an all time record 7 Wimbledon titles, and the man whose records Federer needs to beat to become the unquestionable number one on the surface

So who gets picked? Its hard to say if either of these two are better, but they stand the most chance.

Who? Bjorn Rune Borg ( 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles), Pete Sampras (7 Wimbledon titles in 8 years)

Hard

I’ll let out one truth now: he is the best of all time on the surface. No point comparing anyone with him. Just pointless. But we’ll try anyway.

Interesting statistic, this: What is the number of Major titles won by Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall  during their careers? The answer is eight, an impressive figure. Now another question: What is the number of Major titles won by Federer on hard courts? That answer is also eight, also an impressive figure.

The serve, the devastatingly marvellous forehand, the silky backhand, the fluid motion on court: whew!

 Simply put, the man is too good on the surface: add another 4 Master’s Cups and 10 Masters Series titles to those 8 Majors. Yet he has lost, and has been outplayed, most recently on the surface by Nadal and Murray, but neither have his pedigree yet. “Pistol” Pete won 7 of his Majors on hard courts, along with another 5 Masters Cup titles and 10 Masters Series, so he is an extremely dangerous opponent. Other names that come to mind are Connors, Agassi and Lendl, all fine players on the surface. But let’s be honest:  just one challenger.

Who? Pete Sampras

What does this analysis show us? Nothing we don’t know, really: that Federer is the greatest talent to ever pick up a tennis racquet.