I can only really laugh at people comparing Sampras with Federer. What is the grand slam record of Sampras. Apart from Wimbledon where he had 7 wins, he won 5 US Opens and 2 Australians. His record in the French is just one Semi final. On Clay Courts his record is pathetic. Compare this to Federer who has won the Grand Slams on all surfaces. He has reached the finals of French Open a record 4 times apart from a semi final appearance. This one record is enough for him to top up ahead of Sampras. Regarding competition, it is the toughest today. Sampras of all never had tough competition. However competition is best left to guesses and never can be evaluated. Rod Laver of all won the calendar Grand slam when Wimbledon, Australian and US Open were played on Grass courts and only the French was on clay. But today it is entirely different surfaces that one is playing on and the more tough it is to win those. It is futile comparing Federer with laver or sampras. He is a cut above the rest.
Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by kaushik saha on Jan 07, 2010 12:11 PM
Sampras era 1. beginning - Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic, Boris Becker, Stefen Edberg
2. Middle - Richard Krajicek, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, host of clay-court specialists (Gustavo Kuerten, Thomas Muster, Sergei Bruguera)
3. End of career - rising stars like Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Federe himself, and of course, the clay-courters (Jual Carlos Ferrero, the Argentines etc)
You still want to say Federer had better opponents? If you do, I must admit you started watching tennis in mid-2000s
Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by naveen mahajan on Feb 17, 2016 04:40 PM
Bro no doubt Pete was a Champion but Roger is Best of all Champions.
Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by Swathi on Jan 07, 2010 11:03 PM
You may add Ivan Lendl at Sl.1 and Patrick Rafter, Agassi ta 2.
Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by Venugopalan on Jan 07, 2010 12:15 PM
excellent observation. Sampras era was full of champions, one is bettert than the other. There is no comparison between pete and fed.
Re: Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by prasanth radhakrishnan on Jan 07, 2010 08:49 PM
why did sampras had to face champions. Because he was never consistent. Roger won almost all grand slams, virtually not alowing anybody else to get a credible number of torphies. thats why .. his opnent other than rafa ia looking meger players. Roger was way ahaed of all the players of his era....
Re: Re: Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or La
by kaushik saha on Jan 07, 2010 10:00 PM
Is it? Let us see who he faced. Other than Rafa, a declining Hewitt, Safin, inconsistent Tsonga, Monfils and when finally the competition started to come in the form of Rafa and Del Potro, his chinks have been thoroughly exposed
Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by Mohandas Satyam on Jan 07, 2010 12:42 PM
It is obvious you started watching tennis with Federer. I have seen guys who claim Tendulkar is the greatest just because they watched only him and not the other greats. You should have the humility to accept the views of people who have been closely following tennis for 30-35 years. No one has any thing against Federer but at the same time over-glorifying him because of immaturity and lack of knowledge is not the correct way. Federer is one of the greatest but definitely not the all time greatest. Look at Saha's mail where he has correctly captured the competition level faced by Sampras. Federer had an easy run for the first 4 years and only in the last couple of years is facing stiffer competition from the likes of Nadal, Djokovic, etc. And it is also showing in his record. Any objective observer will agree with me when I say Sampras would beat Federer every time in Grass. In fact, even Stefan Edberg would have beaten Federer in grass. Both Sampras and Edberg were supremely gifted serve and volley players and would have made Federer look silly in Wimbledon!!!
Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by james on Jan 07, 2010 02:04 PM
If you truly believe any of what you've written there, I worry for your mental condition.Depressing, but yet not entirely unpredictable, nonsense. Sampras himself would disagree.
Re: Re: It is futile comparing Federer with Sampras or Laver
by Unlimited Storage on Jan 07, 2010 02:26 PM
but sampras already looks silly in clay court.
While Federer is a better all-round player, in grass, Sampras was just supreme. Similarly, i hear that Rod Laver was perhaps the best all round player and it is difficult to evaluate Federer against him. Federer never won a grand slam where as Laver won two. So it is unfair to all those greats to call Federe the greatest. Suffice to say that he is one among the greatest.
Re: Sampras would have beaten Federer 10 out of 10 times in grass
by Unlimited Storage on Jan 07, 2010 02:21 PM
with far less ifs and buts i can make Ramesh krishnan the best player of all time.
Federer has nothing more to prove. He has already carved a niche for himself to be heralded as the "Greatest ever" the Sports has ever seen. However, 2010 might be a difficult year for him ahead wherein the competition levels have gone a bit tougher at the top. But can we discount the Federer magic
Re: Federer is the greatest ever
by Hemant Gupta on Jan 07, 2010 11:07 AM
Fedrer is a gud player but not great because only gud player playing is Rafeal Nadal againsgt him....But the best player ever can be Pete Sampras, John etc etc who has more tough competition than Fedrer has.
Re: Re: Federer is the greatest ever
by Bitsavan on Jan 07, 2010 11:57 AM
You have really gone nuts. See the line up of Top 8 today it goes as Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Del Potro, Roddick, Soderling, Verdasco, Tsonga . It looks really frightening. Do you mean to say all these are not tough players. Compare this to Pete Sampras, he never really had much competition apart from Agassi who also had a poor record against him. Who were the players he was ranged against , can you please give us a list
Re: Re: Re: Federer is the greatest ever
by kaushik saha on Jan 07, 2010 12:07 PM
These players you have mentioned are big sounding names, but they are hardly "great" players. During Sampras era 1. beginning - Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic, Boris Becker, Stefen Edberg
2. Middle - Richard Krak=jicek, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, host of clay-court specialists (Gustavo Kuerten, Thomas Muster, Sergei Bruguera)
3. End of career - rising stars like Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Federe himself, and of course, the clay-courters (Jual Carlos Ferrero, the Argentines etc)
You still want to say Federer had better opponents? If you do, I must admit you started watching tennis in mid-2000s
