...Roger Federer is better than the American Pete Sampras. It pains me to say it. I will fight tooth and nail for an American to always be better than the foreigner (xenophobe, whatever. I call myself a Patriot!), but in this case, the Swiss Army Knife native is better.
Yesterday by winning his 14th grand slam title, Federerererererererer tied Sampras's record but by winning on the Roland Garros red clay, he did something Pistol Pete never did: complete the career grand slam. Federer is now the sixth player to hold the career slam, most recently Andre Agassi, but I have to say he is the best.
Both were dominant on the Wimbledon grass and there is NO reason to think that Roger won't win there this year. Rog is also the defending US Open champion. Why couldn't he win there as well? Flushing Meadows is the lone hole on Nadal's resume and honestly, why are we saying that Nadal has passed Federer? Nadal used to be owned by Roger and last month, didn't Roger beat Nadal on his own red clay?
While Nadal might now be the No.1 player in the world, there was a time when Federer was the clear No.1 and that was what, less than a year ago? Roger's time may be coming to a close, but you have to think that he has at least 4 grand slam titles left in him over the final years of his career. He is only 27 (soon to be 28) and Sampras was 31 when he won #14. Federer could be approaching 20 when he turns 31. As for Nadal, he is likely this generation's Agassi: cult hero and multiple grand slam winner, but never on the level of Federer. Remember that Agassi overtook Sampras for a while, but in the end we all recognized Pete as the better player in the grand scheme. The same will be true with Roger v Rafa 20 years from now.
Federer is tied for the most and won at least one on each, which Sampras never did. He has the quantity (14 over everyone but Sampras) and the quality (one on each over Sampras) and that to me means he is the best. Too bad Roddick has decided to date SI swimsuit models instead of focusing on tennis, but he has his one Grand Slam, so why bother getting better? The money is still coming in. What's the motivation? Roger appears to be on top for a while and Sampras's number of 14 may drop to third if Rafa keeps playing well on the French clay and grabs one other every other year.
Well at least we still have women's tennis and the Williams sisters.....crap. Nevermind. They are both off designing dresses and appearing on Letterman. Tennis is dead in America. Can Agassi and Sampras come back?
1 comment:
Nadal played this French Open with all the passion of a pussy European.
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