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An interesting comparison of Federer, Borg and Laver
4 Comments · Posted by Staff in Articles
Johan Kriek agreed with this on Facebook. What do you think?
Recently at the Australian Open final press conference, Roger Federer admitted the genius tag sits comfortably with 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- Bjorn Borg (SWE) Birthdate: 6-Jun-56
Between the ages of 17 and 25 years and 4 months old 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 quarterfinals.
1 – 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 to 1968 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.
2 – 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!
Bjorn Borg · Rod Laver · Roger Federer
Martin G · September 29, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Comparing tennis of 60’s, to 80’s to now is not fair.
I hope I don’t have to list all the reasons why ….
lit · September 29, 2011 at 7:07 pm
“Roger for example at age 25 years has not once won all 4 Grand Slams titles in a single calendar year!”
You can’t be seriuos!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · September 29, 2011 at 9:32 pm
True Martin, it seems it’s a totally different, more competitive era now. Or is it really? The best is always the best. I have great respect for anything Johan Kriek says about tennis. It’s never easy to win majors, not in Laver’s time and not now. Welcome to the site Martin G.
Steve · September 30, 2011 at 2:41 pm
“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.”
WTF?