Greatest of All Time?

Sunday was the men's final of Wimbledon. Federer (who I loathe) was playing Andy Roddick (who I love). Federer was playing to win his 15th Grand Slam title, which would be the record for the most ever. It was a great match. They each won two of the first four sets and played to 16-14, which is crazy! It was the most games ever played in a Grand Slam final. Even though my family was so sad that Andy had lost (but glad he had put up a valiant effort) we decided to keep watching to see the tropy presentations.

It was so sad when they gave Andy his trophy. His lips were quivering and you could tell he was trying so hard not to cry. He has never won Wimbledon and this was Federer's sixth win. Plus he had played so hard and was sooooo close to winning. I felt to bad for him, he played an awesome tournament. When they interviewed him he was very gracious and congratulated Federer on winning the 15th Grand Slam, though he joked with Pete Sampras (the former record holder) that he tried to help him keep his title.

Then the interviewed Federer, who I have always found to be an arrogant jerk. He tried to tell Andy that he knows how it feels to lose a match like that because he lost an epic match to Nadal last year in the finals. Andy said, "but you'd already won five" because when Federer lost last year he had already won the tournament five times, while Andy has never won it. Federer said that it still hurt! Losing when you have already had such amazing success is not the same thing as losing when you have never won before!!! Anyway just one example of how Federer is pompous.

Now the debate begins about whether Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time. I will begrudgingly admit that he is probably the most talented tennis player of all time, he has won the most Grand Slams of all time so it is hard to argue that there has been anyone who has played better tennis.

However, I don't believe that greatness is simply defined as being the best. I wandered over to dictionary.com and looked at some of their definitions of great. Some included ways Federer could be described as great: very good, first-rate. But others don't seem to fit: of noble or lofty character, very admirable. While Federer may be an excellent tennis player I don't think he fits those qualities of greatness. A truly great tennis champion should also be humble, gracious, and admirable, which I don't find Federer to be. When I think of great tennis champions I think of Andre Agassi or Pete Sampras (who flew to London to see Federer beat his record and had only kind things to say about him). I can't really picture Federer flying thousands of miles to see his record beaten. I'm not arguing that Federer isn't the most talented, most decorated tennis player of all time, I'm just not sure that "greatest" is a title he should be given.