As i saw djokovic won his 9th AO, I was thinking about Federer. His achievements are huge: 20 grand slams, 8 Wimbledon's, 310 weeks at no.1, 6 YEC and not mention the popularity.
Before him, nobody has achieved what he has done.
Still what will be more remembered is how his main rivals surpassed him, beat him in several grand slams, superior H2H and bound to cross slam count. Masters count is long gone. and now weeks at no.1 .
Even when he rose from the phoenix and overcome one opponent and won 3 more slams, another opponent came back and gave him the most crashing defeat ever.
He is a hero all right, but is he a tragic hero. Will this facts make him sad.
I've seen older reports on how Borg couldn't handle US Open loss year after year and just quit. He was also universally popular like Federer. I wondered what he had felt.
Today after 30 years, nobody cares Borg quit at 26 and much more he could have achieved. I wonder what people will think after another 30 years