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The French Open and Its Implications for Tennis’ Greatest of All Time Debate

Jun 3, 2008, 4:30 PM UTC

While yet another big name went out of the women’s draw of the French Open yesterday (Sharapova to Dinara Safina), the men’s draw continued to march towards its seemingly inexorable conclusion with Roger Federer’s three-set victory over Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the round of 16. Fed now faces 24-seed Fernando Gonzalez in the quarters while at the bottom of the draw, his likely opponent in the finals, three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal faces Nicolas Almagro.
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â†µâ†µPresuming that Nadal defeats Almargo, he will probably face Novak Djokovic in the semis, which seems like the only legitimate stumbling block remaining to a third consecutive Nadal/Federer final at Roland Garros.â†µ

â†µâ†µMuch has been made of the fact that this year Nadal is chasing Bjorn Borg’s modern record of four consecutive French Open titles, but to me there is even more significant history at stake on the terre battue (oh if I hear another ESPN announcer bungle those words this week, I’m going to ... what? what am I going to do? I don’t know ...), history that also involves Borg, if only tangentially.â†µ

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â†µIn this, The Era of Federer, Borg’s name is rarely heard anymore in men’s tennis Greatest of All Time (GOAT) debates. That debate almost entirely focuses nowadays on Fed’s pursuit of Pete Sampras’s record of 14 career Grand Slam singles titles, with the presumption being that if and when he topples that mark (he’s at 12 now), he will be without question the one true historical King. â†µ

â†µâ†µIt’s a very grass-and-hardcourt-centric line of thinking, however, for neither Fed nor Sampras have ever won the French, the Grand Slam’s representative of clay-court tennis, the game as it’s primarily played competitively in continental Europe.â†µ

â†µâ†µSo I ask you - can we really call a player the Greatest of All Time if he has never conquered the French? Would we consider Tiger a worthy heir to Jack if he’d never won a British Open? Isn’t calling Sampras the greatest player ever really saying that he was the greatest grass and hard-court player ever, while being merely an average player on clay? â†µ

â†µâ†µTo my mind, the GOAT debate in tennis should be considered a much more open conversation than it is right now, one that should at least include, if not favor, Rod Laver and Borg and even Roy Emerson because of their stellar records on all surfaces.â†µ

â†µâ†µOf course, it’s in Fed’s power to end this debate once and for all with a victory at the French, although one wonders how many more opportunities he’ll have at that title. Whether you attribute his drop-off this year to his bout with mono or to a merely inevitable slump that even the gods must face in games of chance, the fact of the matter is that Roger will be 27 this year. While that’s a right spry age out here in the real world, in the young-man’s grind of the tennis circuit it’s approaching long-whiskered. â†µ

â†µâ†µThere are barbarians at the gate, and Fed’s uncontested stranglehold on the non-French majors seems in jeopardy of loosening. Given that clay is undoubtedly his weakest surface, one would imagine that as far as winning the French Open goes, it’s gather-ye-rosebuds time for ole Rog. Just something to keep in mind as we edge towards the men’s final where Nadal hopes to equal the feat of the undisputed greatest clay-courter of all time, and Federer hopes, well, to walk away with the whole kit and caboodle.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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