You know that clip of Federer hitting a screamer from Roddick right back at his feet? Unbelievable. Tennis players are (mostly) way underrated athletes.

He’s an enigmatic person of color with a lot of upside, but few tangible impressive results. He does a lot of dumb stuff which is great for this site. I’ve said the same thing in the past - why dedicate so much coverage to him? I’ve also never been allowed out of the greys to talk tennis.

Jennifer Capriati?

I really want him to succeed because he seems like one of the only next-generation guys to offer anything ... y’know, different. He obviously has uncanny feel at the net, athleticism to burn and aggressive shotmaking but I hope he can combine that with a focus on training to the point where he develops the full…

I just assume this came at the end of a 30 ball rally in which La Monf eschewed putting away 2 or 3 routine overheads to set up this particular shot.

The video of Federer coaching Zverev is so, so great...

that doesn’t mean that serve and volley won’t work, it only means that it might work a bit less than it did before. it will still work more than never developing a net game.

Um, clearly you’re forgetting about Gael Monfils.

I can’t speak for boxing (I have a large head and short arms; spent a lifetime avoiding that sport), but tennis for sure tops golf. Every point lost means you either fucked up or got fucked by your opponent, and then you’ve got 10-20-30 seconds to ponder your misery before re-starting, which is to say you can’t just…

I’ll root for Roger until all the ‘but head to head against [whomever]’ contrarians give up.

The Fed drop shot produces the same “aw, fuck it” reactions that Navratilova’s lobs used to in the 80s.

Deft drop shots from the baseline at a Wimbledon final is straight rude.

Clay court of course counts, but it can’t all by itself disqualify him. It’s not like he’s even bad on clay, Nadal is just the best at it. If you’re #1 at twenty things and #2 at one thing, and no one else is even close to that tally, who is the GOAT if not you?

A lot of the reason it looks that way is because Fed cleared the field. He dominated so cleanly for such a long time that it made the field look weak.

To add to the breakdown of the head-to-head provided by muwarror608:

One thing I’ve always found fascinating about Federer (or, rather, the way we talk about Federer) is that there’s never been any backlash. Normally, when an athlete has been around as long as Federer has, and has been as great as Federer has, and is on the receiving end of so much adulation, some sort of noticeable…

I agree. Some folks contend he moves as well as ever, but I don’t think so. Even on a terrific running cross-court forehand following a Roanic drop shot on Wednesday, you could see him laboring to get there and looking a bit stiff in the process (though he did will himself to the ball!). I do think he has learned to…

His hands are also the best of all time. To my eyes, his legs are quite a bit stiffer and he hits from more compromised positions these days than he used to—on the stretch, backing up (look at that first picture ... not ideal)—but it doesn’t matter at all because he can still pop through the ball on either wing, dead…

Kinda like people ripping into LeBron’s Finals’ record when he’s already made it there two more times than Jordan.

Is there anyone serious who isn’t in the “He’s the obvious GOAT” camp? I am sure there are the classic “devil’s advocate” types but I doubt very much there is anyone of serous import in the tennis world who thinks Nadal and his French Open domination somehow eclipse Federer...or that Sampras had superior…