Emerson: “Federer not the G.O.A.T.” and Davenport prepares a comeback
Emerson: “Federer not the G.O.A.T.”
Ok…maybe I am exaggerating a little bit with the title, but Roy Emerson came awfully close to saying that Federer can’t be considered the greatest of all time until he wins the French Open. Emerson, who has won 12 grand slams, expects the Swiss to overcome his record AND Pete Sampras’s (of 14) before he retires. Despite this, he said that Federer will always have lots of doubters, unless he bags the much eluded clay major before his career is over.
“I think there will be a lot of tennis purists who would say that unless Federer can win the French then he’s not a complete player, because he hasn’t won the one on clay yet,”
“Personally I thought his big chance of winning the French was this year, especially after he finally managed to beat Nadal on clay just before in Hamburg.”
“It’s clear though that Federer is awfully good,” Emerson added.
Does someone who has been as dominant as Federer deserve to simply known as “awfully good” whenever he retires? Of course not. I can see a simple way to fix this. Nadal-just let up a little bit next year. Try not to return EVERY ball. Let Federer have his piece of the French pie. Seriously though, wouldn’t everything become easier to decide if Federer just stepped up his game for one final, and took the title he covets so much? Then we could lay to rest this “G.O.A.T.” debate. At least until Nadal retires with 25 majors. All of them won in Paris.
Davenport prepares a comeback
Lindsay Davenport is prepared to return to professional tennis. She “unofficially” retired last December when she stated that she couldn’t imagine coming back to tennis after the birth of her child (born June 10). Despite this she announced yesterday that she planned to enter the Pilot Pen to play doubles with Lisa Raymond.
Rodionova disqualified from Cincinnati Open
Anastasia Rodionova defaulted her match Tuesday, when she hit a tennis ball at a group of fans. With her disqualification Angelique Kerber won the match 4-6, 6-4, 1-0. Rodionova was “shocked” at the chair umpire’s decision, stating that:
“I still don’t understand why they defaulted me. I’m really upset. I’ve never seen in my life anyone defaulted in this situation. I had no warning. I didn’t hit the ball at anybody. I didn’t swear at anybody. I didn’t throw my racket.”
She is only the second player ever on the WTA tour to default a match.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:35 am
And the thing with Federer is that he actually very probable winner of the French Open.
Unlike Sampras who we all knew was capable of great tennis but winning the French Open would be a minor miracle.
So, yes, Roger “needs” to win the French to justify the best ever title.