Fedex The French

Roger Federer Wins Slam No.14

After the way Nadal demolished Federer on the slow rebound ace at the Australian Open earlier this year, it seemed highly unlikely that Federer would win the French Open played on clay. He sure didn't look like he had the game to get past Rafael Nadal. In fact, everybody could see that he could beat everybody else except the lefthander who to all intents and purposes played with the advantage of a righthander on his backhand side.

It just seemed highly unlikely that Federer would get his Slam No.14 if he had to go through Nadal to do it.

Luckily Nadal lost in the earlier orunds and so Federer was able to sneak into the final and demolish Robin Soderling in 3 sets.As a result of lining himself up with Pete Sampas, Pistol Pete has pronounced Federer is the best ever.

"Regardless if he won there or not, he goes down as the greatest ever. This just confirms it," Sampras told the Guardian newspaper.

"I'm obviously happy for Roger. If there's anyone that deserves it, it's Roger. He's come so close (previously)," Sampras said of the new champion and world number two, who lost the last three consecutive French Open finals to Spain's Rafael Nadal.

Well, I dunno about that Pete. Seems to me Pistol Pete was a pretty good player with a good claim to having been the best ever except he didn't win the French. The only other guy who has won on all four surfaces since Rod Laver happens to be Andre Agassi who also has a good claim for being the best all-round player, but I guess Federer's French Open win sort of cements his place at the top of the tree. After all, he's won on all the others as well.

The only knock on Federer's win here is that he didn't have to face his current nemesis Nadal to do it. Then again, surely there was a cheap final for Sampras and Agassi and Connors and McEnroe and Borg. I can remember McEnroe playing one Chris Lewis in a Wimbledon final once. That was pretty one-sided and it wasn't exactly McEnroe's fault that the top seed from the other side of the draw didn't get through. Similarly, it's not Fed's fault Nadal wasn't there to contest it.

When it's all said and done, it's hard to think of a champion who has loved the game as much as Federer has over the years. It's like he is up against the record books because it means so much to him. It's a rare quality in a champ.