Who is the best tennis player in history?
Firstly, it’s nonsense to say that Federer hasn’t had any competition. Tell that to all the other players who’ve tried and tried to get to the Finals against him, but found the opposition very tough. Federer has had to play to an exceptional standard – and anyone watching him back in 2004 – 2006 especially saw him do some things with his racquet that I’ve not seen anyone else do. He was freakish. Ditto with Sampras. He always had trouble with Pat Rafter, for instance. Rafter had him in the 2000 Wimbledon final, but let him off the hook; Mark Phillipoussis had him in a semi a couple of years earlier, but got injured. Take the fast grass of Wimbledon away, and Sampras wasn’t a lay down misere anywhere. That’s not saying he wasn’t great, but that he DID face tough opposition. If you took Sampras out of his era and Federer out of his, you’d have the same situation as you talk about in the 1980’s – all the guys that Federer beat in Finals would have been winners: Hewitt, Roddick, Baghdatis,
