Are you saying that Federer deliberately creates tougher volleys for himself? Come off it. Sampras missed some easy volleys, but as do all players. I have seen Federer miss some sitters too. I have never seen Federer hit a true diving volley. Are you claiming Federer never misses 1st serves on the big points? All players miss 1st serves, that is why the 2nd serve is so important. I have seen Sampras hit countless 2nd serve aces, I cannot recall one 2nd serve ace from Federer. I have been following tennis since well before you were born, and watched Federer since he first made an impact on the scene as a Davis Cup player.
Yes I am saying on big points Federer never misses his first serve. I dont remember him ever doing it. Federer does not need to dive for volleys since his positioning and reflexes are perfect. I agree Federer's 2nd serve is not as great as Pete's but I was ignoring the 2nd serve in my serve rankings anyway.
Safin and Gasquet both have sublime backhands. I belive an onform Safin backhand is better. Nadal beat Federer and Dubai on a moderately fast hard court you know. Safin was rolling backhands past Federer in the AO 05.
So you think 2 matches show everything? How many matches has Federer played in his career now, many hundreds but your example of him not having the best backhand is 2 matches. Now I am even more convinced Federer has the best backhand today and probably of all these great players if that is the best you can do. I have seen matches with Fed and Safin where Fed has outplayed Safin in all areas, including dominating him on the backhand, Hamburg final in 2002, a Davis Cup match that year too. Fed had a mental block vs Nadal around this time last year, which every player has atleast one player they have that against.
The pressure is not really on in straight sets matches. You can always fight again in another set. I am not denying that Federer plays many big points well, but others were better. Federer lost to Safin at AO 05 after having a match point in the forth. Federer missed a shot back through his legs where he could have played a defensive lob. Nearly beating Nalbandian in 5 is not impressive. He has to win to prove the mental strength. Fed lost to Nadal at FO. Federer 0-3 in 5 setters in 2005. 2006: Fed loses to Nadal in Rome final, yet again cannot convert match points. Fed beats Haas in 5 sets (no real pressure though 6-2 in final set). Fed is 1-4 in 5 setters since the start of 2005 (2-4 since 2004 start). I rest my case.
Federer was coming off a huge injury when he played Nalbandian in the 2005 Masters Cup. He pushed himself to even be able to play the event, doctors told him not to. If you saw him play he wasnt anywhere close to being fit and everytime he used his leg-to move, to serve, he was doing it gingerely. To use that as an example against him is cheap, it would be like me using Agassi playing at the French or U.S Open a couple years he played injured against him. Since you bring up that event it is really an example of his incredable mental strength. The fact is he had no business even being in that match with Nalbandian, he was not physically up to playing anymore tennis then it took to play the first 2 long sets, and had nothing in the tank, he showed incredable resilence to get as close to winning the 5th set from way behind as he did, as well as winning 2 3 setters with Ljubicic and Nalbandian in the round robin when he was outplayed in his physically impaired state. Events like that just make me think even more nobody is mentally tougher then Roger.
Yeah Federer chose a stupid shot on match point to end up losing to Safin in the 2005 Australian Open semis. I dont think he showed lack of mental tougness in that match though, he fought back from 5-2 in the 5th to tie it, he showed incredable heart and character that whole match. Safin playing like he did that day would have blown away anybody except Federer.
Fed loses to Nadal at the French Open since Nadal is the best clay courter in the world. It has nothing to do with lack of mental toughness, Nadal is just the best on that surface. Fed is the second best and incredably great on that surface too, and would win many more Frenchs if it wasnt for Nadal and if he improves just a bit more he can start beating Nadal on clay this year. Sampras losing all those early rounds on clay to guys he should beat even on clay is more example of lack of mental toughness then Fed not beating Nadal at the French.
Huge servers to tend to hit aces against many players. Agassi was unfortunate enough to face the probabely the greatest server of all time (Sampras!) in his prime. Agassi hit clean winners off the return like noone else. Agassi took the ball early, hurrying his oponent. Agassi had superb ball striking and hand to eye coordination. There are reasons why players such as McEnroe and Courier desribe Agassi as "the best service returner ever to play tennis".
McEnroe and Courier say alot of other things to, do you believe all of them?
McEnroe picked Agassi to win the French Open every year from 2000-2003 and he lost in the quarters every year, he has always been biased to Agassi, if I am biased to Federer John Mac is just as biased to Agassi as I am to Fed.
Agassi gives up a ton of aces often to all the huge servers I have seen him play. Krajicek, Sampras, Ivanisevic, Phillipousis, Joachim Johansson, I have seen many 40+ matches in aces. Phillipousis, Sampras at 2001 Wimbledon(vs Agassi in 2001-2002 he was still getting a ton of aces BTW), Roddick, Karlovic, cant get nearly as many aces vs Fed though.
Yes you are not going to change my mind and I am not going to change yours. We will just have to think what we want to think. Maybe when Federer has 28 slams when he retires you will see why I would rate him the best of the greats of the last 25 years in almost everything.
