Federer's first 7 slam wins were LOL compared to Andersons... 6:0 6:0 in the slam final on the surface that fits well for his opponent (Hewitt)?? Really?!
No, they weren't. He beat Hewitt, Roddick, Safin and still a very good Agassi who was better than 2015 Fed on HC. Baghdatis was only one weak opponent, not all his slam wins were against guys like Baghdatis. And even Baghdatis was better than someone like Anderson because he actually beat better players to get to his slam final, while Anderson beat mugs after mugs to reach the 2017 USO final and went on to bend over against Rafa, while Baghdatis at least put up a fight against Federer. Djokovic just beat a qualifier in a slam semi so this Baghdatis obsession needs to stop. Qualifiers weren't reaching slam semis in 2004-2007.
Federer beat Hewitt, Nalbandian, Ferrero and Safin all in a row to win 2004 AO.
He beat in form Hewitt and Roddick to win 2004 Wimb. Roddick played an amazing final. He was legitimately a tough opponent in that final, better than 2011 Nadal and 2015 Fed. And Hewitt and Roddick were the only guys to take sets off Federer in that entire grass court season (including Halle), so again, they clearly weren't jokes.
Beat a very good Agassi at the 2004 USO, who certainly wasn't crippled. If wins over old Fed are to be marveled at, don't see why this one should be brushed aside. Gave Fed all he could handle.
Wimb 2005 was his only comfortable and clear win in 2004-2005.
And at the USO he played well-playing Hewitt and Agassi, who both challenged him. They didn't just roll over for him.
If you call this weak, you're being disingenuous. Rafa's slams since 2017 are much much worse than these. These slam wins are no worse than Novak's in 2014-2016. If these are weak, then you have to be the biggest hypocrite on the planet to not say the same about Djokovic's.
Yes, at that point, in 2005, Andre could barely walk. Unless he was lying in his book and unless his coaches were exaggerating.
His movement was a bit diminished, but he made up for it with great ballstriking. He gave Fed a challenging match thanks to it. Movement is not everything. If he gave Fed a difficult match, he must have been doing something right. Not really a worse match than Fed playing well for 2 sets in the 2015 Wimb final and then rolling over in the next 2. How did Fed's better movement help him exactly against Novak since none of his efforts in 2015-early 2016 were significantly better than this one from Agassi?
If Agassi could indeed barely walk, Fed would have brushed him aside, which clearly didn't happen.
2007 Gonzo was the power house!
Gonzo was a top 10 player at that time. Since when is it bad that a top 10 player reaches a slam final? And he was on fire. Completely destroyed Nadal and Haas in the QF and semis. Against Haas he committed something like 4 UEs which is insane. I don't see how he is a weaker opponent than 2019 AO Nadal other than Nadal's name.
2017 wins over Cilic were a joke when the tour was crippled.
Federer built his 2017 dominance with wins over Nadal or is that irrelevant now? The tour wasn't in dire straights during the first half of 2017 when Fed built his dominance anyway.
"who's built his entire second half of his career on wins over old Fed" - yes, he is 0:4 vs. Djokovic in the slam finals 2014 and on but Novak has won 11 GS since 2014 -- how does that show that Novak has built second half of his career "on wins over old Fed"???
Well, he wouldn't have 11 slam wins without those wins over old Fed that propelled him from just a Becker/Edberg player to a Borg level player. And after that he has feasted on the weak younger guys to win more slams. So it's thanks to weaker competition too that Novak is even in contention for surpassing Fedal.
2014-2020 Novak Slam wins: Murray, Federer, Nadal, DelPo, Anderson, Thiem. Only 1 not a slam winner.
2003-2007 Federer Slam wins: Phillipousis, Safin, Roddick, Agassi, Baghdadis, Hewitt, Nadal, Gonzo, Djokovic. First 14 slam finals (2003-2007): 12:2!! Next 17, he is 8:9, losing record to both of his strongest competitors (1:4 vs Rafa, 0:4 vs Djokovic since 2008)
Djokovic also was 6-7 in slam finals pre 2014 Wimb and since then he is 11-3 in them. So what?
Of course he ended up with losing records against both since he is a generation older than them and he exited his prime by the time both of them peaked. Where are the younger guys for Djokovic? By default he inflated his slam final records since he played old Fed in a lot of them. Reverse their ages and Fed would be the one owning Djokovic in slam finals and inflating his record.
And before you bring up 2008-2009 against Rafa, all 3 of them had bad stretches against each other at one point, Nadal in 2011-early 2012 against Novak and Novak in mid 2012-mid 2014 against Rafa. Difference is, they weren't a generation older than each other so they could strike back. Fed exited his prime after early 2010 and didn't get the chance to fix things against Rafa before that since Rafa himself didn't show up to face him in the remaining slams after RG 2009.
Rafa had Anderson and Berdych in the slam finals, the rest was pretty solid woth 20:8 winning record -- pretty impressive. With 5:4 record over Djokovic and 6:3 over RF
I am not sure what your argument is on this?
Rafa had Ferrer as well.
Anyway, make Rafa a generation older than both Fedovic and I doubt he still has these records. He has already been owned by Fedovic after turning 28 so that is definitely telling enough.