Roger Federer

HangTime

HangTime

HangTime

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In the world of (mainstream) Sport, is there anyone currently active who is a more perfect exponent of their chosen discipline? Discuss.



(Yes, I appreciate it is hard to compare between sports. Just a general thought I'm putting out there for us to mull over not too seriously).
 
To be honest I was struggling to find the words I wanted for my opening post. I didn't want to use the word "dominating" but of course that is part of what I was driving at.

IMO a key sign of Federer's greatness is when you hear what other elite pros have to say about him. Even the likes of Andy Roddick when he was world #2 would be full of praise and basically saying that in tennis there is Roger Federer and then there is everyone else; he was on a different level even to the second best player in the world. He has an aura about him which probably wins the psychological battles even before he sets foot on the court. Top bloke off the court apparently, too.

A lot of people also 'feel sorry' for Nadal in a way that his career has coincided with that of Federer, as many feel he is a great player who would have won more titles had he played in a different era. Of course, time is still on his side.

Tiger Woods was the only name that sprang to mind for me really, obviously the likes of Phil Taylor are fantastic but I put the caveat about the sport having to be mainstream in there as no doubt there's some chap who has won the underwater tiddlywinks title for the last 15 years in a row.
 
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Ripper said:
Just a shame he seemed to back out of racing Maurice Green too often :)
Click to expand...

Not that old chestnut :)

MJ has nothing to prove. Olympic Golds and World Records over multiple events. In the crossover event they both ran, the 200m, he has clocked SIX sub 19.8 times. Maurice Greene achieved this feat a grand total of, er, zero times.

Athletics isn't like boxing where you can legitimately accuse people of ducking opponents. Official tournaments like Olympic games and WC are put on, either put up or shut up.
 
Incidentally, Federer is playing an exhibition match against Sampras on Tuesday.

I used to love watching Sampras with his lovely smooth action and explosive 'slam-dunk' smashes, but I think he is gonna have his work cut out to compete with Federer at the top of his game, It's five years since he retired and at 10 years older than Federer I wonder whether his fitness level will be up there with a current pro.

Hopefully he can put up a good fight, but if he takes a pasting it will be a shame, rather like when you see retired boxers coming back for one last fight in the 40s.
 
Indeed, it seems laughable that anyone could list only one single club side from the history of world sport and for it to be MU '93-99. Heck, you couldn't even call them the greatest football side based in England when you compare their record to the Liverpool side mentioned above.
 
Possibly, although SD himself has come out and said that the standard of the modern game is higher than it was when he was in his pomp.

Don't forget that in the modern game there are more devastating potters than there used to be. Nobody could out-smart Davis when it came to safety exchange, but he can't get involved in as many as he used to these days because of much more aggressive play from the likes of O'Sullivan and Williams taking on outrageous pots that would have been unthinkable in the 80s.

I may be mistaken but I also heard that the pockets aren't quite so forgiving as they used to be.
 
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