Friday, 19 June 2009
Federer, one of the best Earth
BRISTOL - Roger Federer did it, and can be named champion of Roland Garros. Nobody, absolutely nobody can doubt his place in history is the best of all time, for me it was even without winning the crown in Paris.
Shares the all-time record of 14 Grand Slam titles with Pete Sampras, is the 6th player to complete the series of four in his career and along with Andre Agassi are the only ones to win on four different surfaces.
But being more specific, but that his victory today, his resume tells us something more, something which is more obvious that I do not understand why nobody has said.
How good is Federer on clay? Is the height of the greatest on clay?
At first glance the answer would be strange for some. Rafael Nadal, Björn Borg, Mats Wilander, Ivan Lendl and Gustavo Kuerten are the masters of brick dust, this is not in dispute before a judge hypothesis is sacrilege to the gods of clay, analyze its achievements.
Eight of the 10 events of late Master 1000 (Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg) and the Roland Garros Rafael Nadal lost to perhaps the best clay history. Remember that between 2005 and 2008, Federer dropped just before the killer in the Phillipe Chatrier.
Something similar happened to Guillermo Vilas in 1977 when he had the best performance of a player in history to the slippery floor, 13 of which won 16 titles this year were on brick dust (including the RG and the U.S. Open, this is the only win in the two sleeves of the same year Grand Slam on clay, from 1975 to 1977 in Forest Hills was changed from grass to brick dust since 1978 and is played on hard courts).
His weak point this year was losing the historic three times they faced Borg and two were on clay, in Monte Carlo and Nice, and although no one doubts this shadow of its huge capacity in the area.
In the chart of comparisons won its place only the best years of clay, are the only years where the player was fully dominant, the approach to be taken into account as a good year to have reached at least the quarterfinals in Three of the four Grand Slam events of the Red. So there are a number of years where champions such as Roland Garros 1990 Andres Gomez, who also reached the semifinals in Rome but was among the last eight in the above events.
Similarly, players of the caliber of Jim Courier and Carlos Moya did not have a season so full and therefore do not appear. Cases of Borg and Lendl are special, their schedules were not so loaded in this area, and while earning a very regular basis are not reached for more than a season.
The other numbers on the right indicate the number of tournaments on clay in which they competed and how they were. Something similar happened with Andre Agassi, playing in little clay, but was dominant when he did, evidenced by its 9 in the quarter-final appearances in RG, which is the mark of all time.
As the table shows, from 2005 to date, Federer is better than large clay as Sergi Bruguera, Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero to name a few, his achievements speak for themselves and deserve to be considered among the Top 10 in the was opened on brick dust.
Four consecutive Roland Garros final, only Rene Lacoste, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer made it and together with the Lacoste, Henri Cochet and Eric Sturgess are the only ones to get at least 5 consecutive semifinals at the French Open.
I have always believed that the quantity is not better than quality, some will have more titles and more victories, but the strength of Federer in the red soil is worthy of praise and few outgrow.
My best 10 in brick dust, was open, are: Nadal, Borg, Wilander, Lendl, Kuerten, Vilas, Muster, Federer and Agassi Nastase. Bruguera deserve honorable mention, Ferrero, Coria and Santana.
by erectusplus at 03:30 |
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