Australian open tennis

Where would you rate The Fed Express right now? How do you think he would have fared against Sampras, Becker, Borg, Sampras and McEnroe in their prime?

Is he facing the same level as competition that Borg and McEnroe faced?

McEnroe is still my all time favourite and i used to love watching Becker throw himself around the court. Good characters too. Sampras was too good for his own good. He needed to be really pushed so that you could see some of the shots he was really capabale of. If he'd won the French Open, he would have gone down as the best ever.

Federer looks more capable of doing what Sampras couldn't and win on that clay stuff. If he does, then he'll seen as the best mens player there's ever been.

IMHO of course!

quote:

Originally posted by rackkit:
Where would you rate The Fed Express right now? How do you think he would have fared against Sampras, Becker, Borg, Sampras and McEnroe in their prime?

I think any one of them on their day might have won the odd set against him.

quote:

Where would you rate The Fed Express right now? How do you think he would have fared against Sampras, Becker, Borg, Sampras and McEnroe in their prime?

An impossible question to answer, the game has changed so much since the McEnroe - Borg era. The one player I do feel would have given Federer trouble, in his prime, was Andre Agassi.

One thing that is certain however, Federer is a great deal more entertaining to watch than Sampras ever was.

i think Federer would have beaten them all - he is a very complete player and has no weaknesses at all. the only person i have seen beating him was Nadal two or three times ;.

Federer on grass is unconvincable though - i don't know if he has ever lost one match in wimbledon in the last years - has he?

by the way: have you seen how Gonzales swept Nadal away? this will be one interesting final!

regards,christian.

quote:

by the way: have you seen how Gonzales swept Nadal away? this will be one interesting final!

Gonzalez did the same to Tommy Haas in the semi's but can he maintain that kind of form in the final against Roger? Or will he lapse back into his old, erratic ways? What is certain though, if Federer hits the court running as he did against Roddick, Gonzalez will struggle.


Great to see Serena Williams back, although I doubt Maria Sharapova will share that sentiment!

Ouch!

I hadn't caught up on the Serena story and thought she'd been out of the picture through lack of interest in the game but it was great to hear that she's back after a long injury layoff and back in style too!

Well done that girl.

quote:

Originally posted by Basil:

quote:

Where would you rate The Fed Express right now? How do you think he would have fared against Sampras, Becker, Borg, Sampras and McEnroe in their prime?

An impossible question to answer, the game has changed so much since the McEnroe - Borg era. The one player I do feel would have given Federer trouble, in his prime, was Andre Agassi.

Only on slower surfaces like the one used at the Australian Open or on clay. On grass or any of the other quicker surfaces, I doubt that Agassi would have fared much better than the others.

Borg with his under-rated serve and his ability to handle aggressive serve volley players on grass would probably have come closer than the others on most surfaces.

quote:

Originally posted by blackforest:

by the way: have you seen how Gonzales swept Nadal away? this will be one interesting final!

regards,christian.

Awsome stuff from Fed Ex but a bit one sided in the end. Once Gonzalez let him off in that 1st set, it was game over.

So that's 10 majors for Fed. How long before he passes the Sampras total (13 i think)? He could do it by this time next year.

He's that good, he doesn't even have a natural rival to push him on to better things.

The other guys are coming and going (Hewitt, Roddick etc). Maybe as Fed gets older, a maturing (maybe) Murray might challenge him but that would only be due to the age difference.

One thing puzzles me about Fed, can a coach improve him? Surely the only way he can improve is to play someone who is better than him or does he practise against a brick wall as that's the only way he's guaranteed that the ball's gonna come back to him!

It's 14 to equal the Sampras record, so if he completes the grand slam this year (and who would bet against that!) he'll be playing for his 14th slam this time next year in Melbourne!

Adding to his impressive list of achievements he became the first player since Borg (1980 - Roland Garros) to win a grand slam without dropping a set.

The really frightening thing for the rest of the men’s field is how comfortably he won this match against Gonzalez playing at least two levels below his best. He didn't even look tired afterwards!

The saving grace when you compare Federer's domination of tennis with Sampras's, is even when he's beating an opponent love, love and love, it's still great entertainment.

Long may Roger reign!

the 1st set was really really good i think and technically some of the games were amazing - it was a bit like table tennis: players so good that they can play EVERY ball back (from every angle).

quite amazing stuff. set 2 and 3 was indeed kind of easy for federer but gonzales is a really brilliant player i think.

regards,christian.