Tennis Anyone?

You probably don't know this about me, but the sport of tennis has always been a significant (maybe not the right word) part of my life. I grew up in a well to do neighborhood just east of downtown Syracuse called Sedgwick Farms. While the houses in the neighborhood were nice and the people were generally friendly, there were only two things that really gave Sedgwick Farms a sense of community. The first was each year on Christmas Eve virtually every house in the neighborhood (outside of the few Jewish people) would light luminaries (white bags with candles in them) and space them out along the street. Quite frankly, they were a hassle that somehow my brothers and I always had to deal with. The other was the Sedgwick Farms tennis club. The club consisted of a two story clubhouse with a dining room upstairs that I've been in once (for a graduation party) and at least 5 courts made of red clay. I still remember taking tennis lessons there as a kid because we were required to wear all white, could only wear a certain type of sneaker, and our instructor's name was Hanz. I can still remember exactly what my racket looked like. It was turquoise Prince racket with blue strings (you could see a P in the strings) and a purple grip.

As I continued to get older I developed a minor passion for the game. In my driveway I would play wall ball (I know that's a lacrosse term, but I think it applies here too) against my garage for hours at a time. I wasn't even deterred by the fact that I broke at least half of the windows on the garage and soon after the ball would routinely go through the holes and I'd have to open the garage door and search for the ball before I could keep playing.

I don't know what it was, but I eventually stopped playing (and when I say playing I mean playing against myself in my driveway) for a few years. Maybe it was because I spent more time playing baseball, or that I got into lacrosse, or that when I played a female family friend who is two years older than me in tennis I got absolutely smoked and my confidence was shot. Either way, I got back into tennis during my junior and senior years of high school because we used to play it in gym class.

Eventually I started playing a few of my friends on a pretty regular basis. One of which I consistently beat even though he was 6'4 and would eventually play 4 years of college football at an Ivy League school. I never lost to him, but the matches were competitive so it was fun. There was another friend of mine who went on to play 4 years of top tier college basketball and 1 year of college football who, for some reason or another, I could never beat. There was no doubt in my mind that I was the better tennis player, but he was definitely the better athlete and his will to win clearly outshined mine on numerous occasions. Our matches were always close (we played best of three sets), but he always came out on top. I specifically remember having a triple match point in the second set (I dominated the first set) and blowing not only that, but the third set as well. To this day I have never beaten him.

During my college years I played tennis in the summer against a few of my friends (one of whom has a tennis court in his backyard) and while on vacation against my dad. For 2-3 years I didn't lose, but my friend who has the court in his backyard kept on challenging me. Eventually he beat me and I can only remember playing a handful of times after that. I'm sure that I've played my dad while on vacation a few times, but the last time I specifically remember playing tennis was during my junior year of college against a girl I had a crush on.

While I wouldn't say that I was ever any good at tennis I did enjoy the sport. I even spent plenty of time watching it on television. For example, I watched the Andre Agassi (who I just emailed to see if he'll come on the radio)/James Blake 5 set thriller in the 2005 U.S. Open in its entirety. Lately I've watched plenty of my girl Caroline Wozniacki. And of course, I've seen plenty of Federer and Nadal. Now before I get more into their "rivalry" I first have to mention a quick word about the #3 ranked tennis player in the world; Novak Djokovic. If you don't know how to pronounce his name now you will in a second. While doing the highlights of a Djokovic match on SportsCenter a few months ago the most underrated anchor in the business Robert Flores said this…



So back to Federer/Nadal. If I asked you, "Who's the best tennis player in the world over the past 10 years?" I'm pretty sure that most of you, assuming you know something about tennis or that you've at least seen enough Gillette commercials, would say Roger Federer. Now you wouldn't exactly be wrong. Federer has won 16 grand slams (6 at Wimbledon), which is the most all time, but Rafael Nadal owns him in head to head matches. The two "rivals" have played 25 times. Nadal has won 17 of them. They've met in the finals of a grand slam 8 times. Nadal has won 6 of them.

Federer will turn 30 in August, which in tennis is worse than being a 35 year old running back in the NFL, whereas Nadal just turned 25 and won his 10^th grand slam in the past week.

All points considered, how can we say that Federer is the best tennis player of all time when his "rival" has dominated him in the course of their careers?

Here's what I think this is a case of. Once Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi retired tennis fans were looking for someone to carry the torch for the sport. They found their man in Federer and anointed him as the best player ever. Federer's elegance, composure, and championship pedigree fit the bill. Then after a few years of pure domination Nadal came along. He's quicker, faster, more agile, and more powerful than Federer. Based on the eye test alone it's clear that Nadal is the better player. Sure, some of that is the age difference, but people are still reluctant to admit it because they've already anointed Federer as "the best player of all time."

This is similar, again similar (not the exact same thing because there a few differences), to what's happened in the NBA. After Michael Jordan retired basketball fans were almost immediately searching for the second coming. Every time a talented shooting guard came up through the ranks people started making the comparison. Finally Kobe showed up and, fair or not, was anointed as the next Jordan. In fact, he tried so hard to be Jordan in the way that he spoke and played that people almost reluctantly said, "Ok, he's the next Michael." Kobe may not have fully lived up to the Jordan comparison, but he came as close as anyone ever has. After his 5^th championship people were starting to put the two in the same conversation. But now LeBron has shown up and is on the precipice of his first title. He hasn't exactly owned Kobe in head to head meetings like Nadal has owned Federer, but I think it would be foolish, even for a Kobe apologist like me, to not admit that LeBron is the more gifted player.