'17-time Major winner is the greatest player of all time'
Wednesday 15 October 2014 11:21, UK
Sky Sports tennis commentator Barry Cowan explains why Roger Federer is better than he has ever been - and why he must be classed as the greatest of all time...
I genuinely believe Roger Federer is playing the best tennis of his life.
People might question that considering he hasn’t won a Grand Slam this year and there were seasons when he won three, but you have to look at the way the sport has progressed.
Guys have got fitter, stronger and are hitting the ball harder and earlier, so the depth around the top 10 is greater now than it was when Roger was so dominant in the mid-to-late-2000s.
As a result, Federer has had to reinvent his game and for a player who has won 17 Majors to sit back, take stock and say ‘I need to do something different’ is true testament to his character.
To be a truly great net player you have to accept that you are going to get passed and that you are going to have unproductive spells. Roger gets that now.
It’s one thing saying that, though, and another thing having the ability to carry it out, so I cannot praise Roger enough for the improvements in his attacking game and net play.
Federer talked for a few years about being more positive and there were periods when he was ultra-aggressive and always on the front foot, but I don’t think at that stage he truly bought into the game-plan of winning tennis at the net.
To be a truly great net player you have to accept that you are going to get passed and that you are going to have unproductive spells but know that you will get your rewards if you stick with it, even if they come 45 minutes later.
Roger gets that now, thanks in large part to his coach Stefan Edberg, one of the top five attacking players of all time, and we saw a clear indication of that when he beat Novak Djokovic las week in Shanghai.
Djokovic is one of the best returners and best passers there has ever been, but Roger did not lose serve and, although he got burned a couple of times when coming forward, he won big points at the net, too.
I think Roger’s upsurge has also been helped by his move to a larger-framed racket, something that has certainly given him more pop on his backhand and, perhaps, even more confidence on his serve.
However, I don’t think we can say that if Federer had all these assets years ago he would have won more than 17 Grand Slams.
When he beat Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001, he served and volleyed on both his first and second serves but then quickly decided that with the way tennis was going continuing in that vein was not going to take him to the next level.
Federer subsequently won 16 of his 17 Grand Slams by serving, staying back, whacking forehands and coming in occasionally – the exception, I think, was when he came forward consistently to beat Andy Murray in the 2012 Wimbledon final.
Now, though, players aren’t used to seeing their opponents bearing down at them at the net, so when Federer adopts that ploy he can catch them cold.
Roger is back up to No. 2 in the world and playing the tennis he wants to play, while his excitement at winning titles is still there for all to see – he celebrated Sunday’s triumph like a little kid!
He is only going to get better and smarter with his net play so as long as his back, which I think gave him more trouble last season then he let on, holds up, I see no reason why he cannot go on for a few more years yet.
Federer can still achieve so much more, then, but I would place him as the greatest tennis player of all time already.
Rafa Nadal fans will say that’s ridiculous and question how I can make that claim when Rafa holds a 23-10 head-to-head record over Roger and I accept that argument - but I would raise the point of how often they have played on a neutral surface: an outdoor, medium-paced hard court.
Many of Rafa and Roger’s meetings have been on the clay, which Nadal is the undisputed king of and which is Federer’s worst surface, but they haven’t met at the US Open, often because Rafa hasn’t gone that deep into it.
What puts Federer above Rafa, though, is what he has achieved in the Grand Slams, winning three more than the Spaniard.
Roger is also a truly great champion who has held himself with so much class on and off the court for his entire career, so he ticks all the boxes.
Watch Federer compete in his hometown event, The Swiss Indoors in Basel, from Monday, October 20 on Sky Sports 3 (channel 404).
