Federer plays Roddick tonight

Originally Posted by Gander

Nadal might win, at most, 3 more slams. His style of play invites injuries.

How many do you see Roddick winning?

Maybe 1. Of course it's hard to look at his game objectively after a massacre like last night.

[Samarta]

I played tennis at what I guess would be considered a pretty high level and was fortunate to see a lot of the greats and until Federer came along I thought McEnroe was the most talented player I had ever seen. Not necessarily the best because of records, but man he had the softest hands ever. Federer has taken it to a level, that puts him in the Jordan/Woods class. He is flat out amazing. At this point, I think he is clearly the most dominant athlete in sports. I think even more so than Tiger.

There was some talk about Safin in the thread. He does have game but it's one dimensional and he's got nothing between his ears. But the scary thing about a guy like that is he is capable of beating anyone if his timing is right because he hits it so damn hard.

I just hope that Federer can figure out a way to win the French becaue at this point unless something bizarre happens, I think he is a lock to win the other three legs of the slam. He is one of those athletes that I feel priviledged to be able to watch.

He has surpassed Borg.

And thats as good as it gets. Borg was the best I have ever seen. We also must realize the technology shift in the racket has led to players that might not have done so well with the old rackets. It would be really interesting to see how well Federer would do with the old rackets that Borg and later, McEnroe had to use. I used those rackets... you had to hit the ball dead center and they were heavy. Even hitting the ball dead center, the ball would not come off with near the velocity or control.

I would think he still would be great. But I think it would be harder to win so many matches. Those old rackets were really a pain, way heavy. Guys like Safin would be dead meat with the old rackets. McEnroe was a master with those old rackets, but Borg was so much quicker than McEnroe they dont even compare from that point of view. Borg is the quickest I have ever seen. Best footwork ever.

[Gander]

I agree with both your posts (Pgard and Samarta). I wasnt privileged to remember Borg, I grew up watching guys like Becker, Edberg, Sampras and Agassi, all who I thought were excellent. But all of them had notable weaknesses with 1 or 2 big weapons. Agassi had the return of serve, Edberg had a beautiful net game, Sampras the huge serve and forehand and Becker the backhand and agility.

What Federer has is...all of the above. He secretly has a wonderful serve which he hardly gets any credit for because for people like Roddick thats all they have. He gets no credit for his agility because Nadal steals his thunder there.

The guy has it ALL. Hes the best I have ever seen and right now no question is even more dominant than Tiger Woods.

Originally Posted by Gander

I agree with both your posts (Pgard and Samarta). I wasnt privileged to remember Borg, I grew up watching guys like Becker, Edberg, Sampras and Agassi, all who I thought were excellent. But all of them had notable weaknesses with 1 or 2 big weapons. Agassi had the return of serve, Edberg had a beautiful net game, Sampras the huge serve and forehand and Becker the backhand and agility.

What Federer has is...all of the above. He secretly has a wonderful serve which he hardly gets any credit for because for people like Roddick thats all they have. He gets no credit for his agility because Nadal steals his thunder there.

The guy has it ALL. Hes the best I have ever seen and right now no question is even more dominant than Tiger Woods.

I think mainly the guy is such a gentleman that he is underappreciated. Its almost like you got to be some sort of a-hole (see McEnroe, Nastasi). McEnroe had a great serve. His placement was outstanding without tremendous velocity. He would vary his serve constantly just like a pitcher. It was beautiful. Federer has the best ground strokes ever. He plays wonderful games with his ground strokes... hard, soft, overspin, underspin,short, deep, he keeps opponents off balance because he basically can do anything with the ball.
But anyone can have a bad day. He is just so much better that he has got to have a really bad day and his opponent must be at a peak.

[Samarta]

I saw Borg play a lot and he was extremely fast when he needed to be. As far as hand quickness, McEnroe was and still is in a world all alone. He was flat out amazing. Now if I had to rank them 1 and 2 I would probably rank Borg ahead of him just based on record. I just hope that Federer doesn't have the same misfortune with the French as did Johnny Mac and as Borg did with U.S. Open. Now Gander mentioned a guy that was also extremely impressive to watch in person and that is Boris Becker. Reason being is he was a monster. When he was playing he was 6'4 245lbs. The guy was amazing to watch. Equipment does have a lot to do with some of the stuff they do, but it's that way in every sport. Jack Nicklaus never hit a 460 cc driver and is still considered the greatest ever by most. Right now I think everyone would agree that both Federer and Woods will go down as the greatest to ever play their respective sports, but Federer could get it done this year by winning the slam.