01-25-2007, 08:15 PM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/0...ports.html
Is Federer the greatest sportsman ever?
There is something otherworldly about Roger Federer's skill that makes him like nothing we have ever seen before.
Rob Smyth
January 25, 2007 02:21 PM
Those who say that sport is just about winning obviously haven't seen too much of Roger Federer. He has turned tennis into art first, sport second, and his silken destruction of Andy Roddick at the Australian Open today took sporting aesthetics into the giddiest of stratospheres.
Art is supposed to be temperamental, but Federer allies it to a chilling consistency: at the age of 25, he has won nine grand slams - including eight of the last 12, including three consecutive Wimbledons and three consecutive US Opens. He has yet to complete the set by winning the French Open but, either way, is on course to obliterate Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slams. These days, Federer's victories are so routine that the biggest headlines come when he loses a set (or, in today's astonishing second set, a point).
The only serious competition for greatest current athlete is Tiger Woods: at 31 he has 12 majors - including, unlike Federer, the full set - and is six away from equalling Jack Nicklaus's record. But Woods has never accumulated the big prizes with Federer's devastating frequency: there were three majors in 2000, but since then Woods's gradient has inevitably levelled off.
The way Federer is going, it is entirely conceivable that he will one day be seen as the greatest sportsman in history. There are numerous contenders - Don Bradman, Shane Warne, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Pele, Diego Maradona, Woods, Michael Johnson, Stephen Hendry - but there is something otherworldly, almost orgiastic, about Federer's work that makes him like nothing we have ever seen before. Last year, the New York Times' David Foster Wallace wrote about Federer as Religious Experience. Has there ever been a higher sporting power?
Is Federer the greatest sportsman ever?
There is something otherworldly about Roger Federer's skill that makes him like nothing we have ever seen before.
Rob Smyth
January 25, 2007 02:21 PM
Those who say that sport is just about winning obviously haven't seen too much of Roger Federer. He has turned tennis into art first, sport second, and his silken destruction of Andy Roddick at the Australian Open today took sporting aesthetics into the giddiest of stratospheres.
Art is supposed to be temperamental, but Federer allies it to a chilling consistency: at the age of 25, he has won nine grand slams - including eight of the last 12, including three consecutive Wimbledons and three consecutive US Opens. He has yet to complete the set by winning the French Open but, either way, is on course to obliterate Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slams. These days, Federer's victories are so routine that the biggest headlines come when he loses a set (or, in today's astonishing second set, a point).
The only serious competition for greatest current athlete is Tiger Woods: at 31 he has 12 majors - including, unlike Federer, the full set - and is six away from equalling Jack Nicklaus's record. But Woods has never accumulated the big prizes with Federer's devastating frequency: there were three majors in 2000, but since then Woods's gradient has inevitably levelled off.
The way Federer is going, it is entirely conceivable that he will one day be seen as the greatest sportsman in history. There are numerous contenders - Don Bradman, Shane Warne, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Pele, Diego Maradona, Woods, Michael Johnson, Stephen Hendry - but there is something otherworldly, almost orgiastic, about Federer's work that makes him like nothing we have ever seen before. Last year, the New York Times' David Foster Wallace wrote about Federer as Religious Experience. Has there ever been a higher sporting power?
