Roger Federer is indeed the greatest of them all! The thing about people who do not understand tennis and a player’s love for the game is that they can easily criticise it by quoting some recent facts and figures only. They don’t know anything about style, grace, art and how much tennis has evolved since Spencer Gore first won the Wimbledon in 1850. “In the modern game, you’re a clay court specialist, a grass court specialist or a hard court specialist… or you’re Roger Federer”, remarked Jimmy Connors the all-time career title record holder. When tennis players like Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokavic play tennis, they play great tennis. However when Roger Federer plays tennis, he creates art. The moment he picks up the tennis racquet, it becomes an extension of his body. He uses it as a paint brush to create pieces of art inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci and Picasso, and he uses the court as his canvas. With his fore hand he creates Rembrandt’s ‘The Storm of the Sea of Galilee’. His bank hand is like him recreating Mona Lisa’s smile. His serve is like Claude Monet’s ‘Sunrise Impression’ and his volley is like Raphael’s ‘Wedding of a virgin’. The same cannot be said for Nadal, who has hardly completed a year without an injury; or Murray, who is 26 and just started taking baby steps; or Djokavic, who by the way is a good player but cannot be compared to Federer. Coming to the facts, Roger Federer became the world’s greatest of all time when he reached the world’s number one in 2004 and stayed there for 237 weeks. Not only this, Federer was also the world’s number one in the year 2009. He has never been out of the top five. One cannot compare any other tennis player with Roger Federer because there is none. Once someone reaches the age of 32 and achieves all that Federer has achieved, only then can any comparison really be started. Federer has won a record 17 majors, three more than what Pete Sampras managed to achieve. He equalled the record of Bjorn Borg, one of the living legends of the game, by winning five consecutive Wimbledon titles (six overall). “Federer is a complete player. He is an artist on the court”, Borg remarked in an interview. Federer also won five consecutive US Open titles, three consecutive Australian Open titles (four overall) and the one major, which eluded him for so long, the Roland Garros which he captured in 2009. His impressive grand slam record is enough to put him into the ‘Greatest of All Time’ list along with the likes of Rod Laver, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. During his initial years, Federer was considered an angry, hot-tempered young man and was famous for smashing his racket to pieces on the court. However, this transition from a hot-headed young individual into a magnificently cool, calm, confident and relaxed professional player was, in my mind, the turning point in his career. John McEnroe was once quoted as saying, “I am amazed, not only by the beauty of Roger’s game, but also the consistency of his tournament wins. Even more amazing is the fact that he seems to love what he is doing and he handles the pressure so well. Roger is a great champion and ambassador for our sport.” From 2003 to 2007, Federer ruled the tennis world. His level of play swelled to the heights where no player could beat him. His beautifully constructed points mesmerised the crowds. He has this hypnotic aura about him. Whoever watches Federer play is bound to acknowledge the brilliance with which his points are constructed. No ball is unreachable, no shot impossible. The shots he produces leave everyone breathless. “I have probably run out of adjectives to describe him on the court to talk about his excellence. He is just brilliant”, James Blake, 2008 Olympic finalist. Yet with all the fame and success, Federer has remained humble and simple. Andy Roddick once said, “He is a real person, he is not an enigma. Off the courts, he is not trying to be somebody. If you meet him at McDonald’s and you didn’t know who he was, you would have no idea that he’s one of the best athletes in the world”. Roger Federer is a complete athlete. He has created records that are not going to be broken anytime soon. In addition, when Federer retires from professional tennis, he will leave behind a legacy – a legacy which will define him as the greatest player to ever have set foot on a tennis court. So, if people still think that Roger Federer is hardly the greatest of all time, they better think twice. *alb*
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 15:54:30 +0000
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