Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico2009
Ok guys, some of you are going to hate me for this.
I have the utmost respect for Mr. Federer, but I have one question. How could he be the greatest player of all time if he cannot beat 2 of the tour's players on a consistent basis (Murray [2-6] and Nadal [7-13])? If he cannot beat these players of his own time, then how can he be the best player of all time?
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That's like saying how could Greg Maddux be considered amongst the greatest pitchers of all-time when Tony Gwynn could wipe the fucking floor with him on a regular basis (lifetime .429 with NO strikeouts in over 100 ABs)? But Tony didn't have that kind of success vs. everyone - I'm sure some pitchers had his number. Same with Murray and Nadal - if they were better than Federer, one of them would have taken #1 from him much sooner than last year. Murray is still improving and may eclipse both of them just yet, but still...it's about overall and consistent dominance, and there's a couple facts that set Federer apart from just about everyone except maybe Rod Laver (who didn't have as long of a career as he could have):
-Federer won his first 12 grand slam finals outside of the French Open, by far a record. That should say SOMETHING...Nadal may have owned him on clay, but Federer has been owning just about everyone on the other surfaces - most importantly in the tournaments that count the most in the sport, in the matches that count the most (finals, semifinals). Murray having a winning record against him is great - but it needs to translate to big tournament success first.
- Along those same lines, his grand slam record since 2004? 143-9...143 and fuckin NINE. If you take out French Open, he'd be 111-4! The only reason his overall match record for his career is only around 80% win is because it includes the first 4-5 years of his career when he wasn't peaking. By the end of his career he'll probably end up around 90% win with the way he's going. Nadal in the same span is 87-13, and take out the French Open and he'd be 56-12...certainly good and worth of a world #1 ranking, but look - his French Open record is 31-1 - which %wise is only slightly more dominant than Federer is in the other 3 slams.