This question is posed every time I watch a tennis match on TV involving Roger Federer and some pundits are willing to
award this title of best player of all time to Federer.
We can all understand that the press will have to be positive and
cater to the ATP to get their passes and satisfy their employers, but with this kind of comments and write ups they do a great
disservice to their audiences and the sport of tennis, because they are not taking into account past past performances from
players such as; Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and totally ignoring history.
Recently at the Australian Open final
press conference, Roger Federer admitted the genius tag sits comfortably wit
h him now;
"I mean, look, I guess I'm the best
tennis player in the world," Federer said when asked how he reacts to the word genius being used to describe him and his
sublime game.
"You can call me a genius because I'm outplaying many of my opponents, kind of maybe playing a bit
different, you know, winning when I'm not playing my best. All of that maybe means a little bit of that. So it's nice."
Well what happened to humbleness in victory and in sports? That is another question for another article. The aim of this
article is to put the question "Who Is the best player of all time?" to rest. I could argue that any expert in the world;
TV commentators, coaches, and others, would easily agree that, in tennis the younger you are, the harder it is to win against older
opponents. Also younger players who have won major Grand Slam tournaments in any era, were true prodigies and perhaps since the word
is so loosely applied these days you can call them even geniuses, if you will.
Following such guideline, and then looking at the record versus
age the best player of all time is:
1- Björn Borg (SWE) Birthdate: 6-Jun-56
Between the ages of 17 and 25 years and 4 months old Björn Borg won (61) Singles Career Titles!
Roger Federer
between the ages of 17 and 25 years and 4 months old won (45) Singles Career Titles, 16
less titles then Borg won!
Borg, won 6 Major Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros on clay 5 of
them consecutive and 5 consecutive titles at Wimbledon on grass.
Roger Federer has won 0 Roland Garros and
4 Wimbledons, 2 Australian Opens, 3 US Opens.
Borg at 17 years old was finalist in 4 ATP events
1973--Buenos Aires, Monte Carlo, San Francisco, Stockholm!
Roger Federer at 17 years old in
1998- reached Toulouse quarter finals.
1 (Ex-aequo) - Rod Laver (AUS) Birthdate:
9-Aug-38
At 24 to 25 years old Rod Laver in 1962 won all four of tennis' Grand Slam singles titles in
the same year the Australian Open - French Open - Wimbledon - US Open. At the end of 1962 to1968 when Rod Laver was at his prime,
he was forbidden to play any Grand Slam tournaments because he turned professional.
Rod Laver is the only player
in tennis history to have won twice All four of tennis' Grand Slam singles titles in the same year (Australian
Open - French Open - Wimbledon - US Open) —first as an amateur in 1962, and then again as a professional in 1969.
Roger Federer (SUI)Birthdate: 8-Aug-81
Roger for example at age 25 years has
not once won all 4 Grand Slams titles in a single calendar year!
Rod Laver has won
(39) professional Singles Career Titles starting at age 30 years old (1968)!
If the press can call what Roger Federer is doing today "genius",
I do not know what they would have called Rod Laver winning all 4 Grand Slam titles Australian Open -
French Open - Wimbledon - US Open in a single year at age 31 years old!
Anyway, for me and I hope for you too, with all my respect, the question and
speculation of who is or who was the best player of all time is answered. Until someone younger then Bjorn Borg achieves
a better record, Borg is the best player of all times! This does not mean that I vouch for Borg's tennis
game, which I did not like at all, but his record for a young athlete and for any athlete of any age is absolutely awesome
and unrivaled by his peers or any one player of our times!
Was Borg a genius? No, he was just an
excellent tennis player!
Stay tuned in my next article, I will let you know why Roger Federer is winning so easily today and how.
Play the game with no fear!
Sérgio Cruz
P.S.-
If you compare the players below with Roger Federer, I suppose you could call them geniuses as well!
Ivan Lendl Birthdate: 7-Mar-60 - SINGLES CAREER TITLES (94)
18 years old 1978 Ranked ATP # 74
19 years old 1979 Ranked ATP # 21
20 years old 1980 ATP
Ranked ATP # 6
Roger Federer
(Sui) SINGLES CAREER TITLES (46)
17 year old 1998
Ranked ATP # 301
18 years old Ranked
ATP # 65
19 years old Ranked ATP # 29
20 years old Ranked ATP # 13
Pete Sampras (USA) Birthdate: 12-Aug-71 SINGLES CAREER TITLES (64)
17 years old 1987 Ranked ATP # 97
18 years old 1989 Ranked ATP # 81
19 years old 1990 Ranked ATP # 5
20 years old 1991 Ranked ATP # 3
Jimmy Connors (USA) Birthdate: 2-Sep-52 SINGLES CAREER TITLES (105)
21 years old 1973 Ranked ATP # 3
References: ATP website Björn Borg Roger Federer Rod Laver
Jimmy Connors
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Comment by saspcruz on 2007-10-09 19:23:48 The challenge is that today's players just can not cope with a simple ruse of the past which was the backhand slice. Roger Federer destroys them all with it; either short or deep and low to their backhands, short or deep and low to their forehands or yet with simple floaters.
The reality is that he brings them all to teeters and beats them with a shot that 100% percent of the players in the 40's, 50's, 60s and 70's and most in the 80's handled with ease. Even Bjorn Borg trashed the slices!
This obviously means that even though Roger Federer is a great player, there is a major flaw in the development of present ATP players which allows such great weakness, therefore dominace of a single player.
Which goes with this saying "In the land of the blind, the one who can see is King!"
Comment by GUEST on 2007-09-06 02:44:10 the players today are much more competitive compared to the players in the time of laver, etc...
so its harder to dominate today than their time....
its amazing how federer dominated tennis with all the competitive players...
TALK TENNIS 
