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Underlined the Greatest ever?

This Sundays Wimbledon triumph was a momentous win for Federer, who is now tied with Pete Sampras at seven Wimbledon titles and extended his overall grand slam record to 17. The number has special significance as at that age a young Roger Federer won Wimbledon Juniors for the first time. Boy what has this man achieved and quite possibly still could achieve.

Some thought that Federer won his last grand slam in 2010 but the great man proved them wrong and that Wimbledon should have been the place to do so was as fitting for him as his famous white cardigan and expensive post victory watch.

On Monday he returned to the top of the rankings for the first time since May 2010 and will be only the second man, after Andre Agassi, to be ranked number one in his thirties another record. Let's not forget come next week Federer will hold the number one world ranking a record 287 weeks & counting, surpassing his hero's Sampras 286 weeks.

Twenty nine months without winning grand slam is a long time in sport, let alone tennis especially after becoming a father of twins, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva (they were six months old in Australia). In the aftermath of Federer's SW19 win I came accross a quite remarkable stat that tennis fathers have won only 12 of the last 129 grand slam titles. One more reason to admire the 30 year olds achievements.

Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg, greats in their own right, can detest to not winning a gram slam after embarking into fatherhood. Though Federer claims the twins have improved him as a player "I think it's helped my game more than anything because I think I'm playing some of the best tennis of my life right now".
Murray had this to say on centre after the final “I was asked the other day: 'Is this your best chance, Roger is 30 now?'
“He's not bad for a 30-year-old. He played a great tournament. I know he had some struggles with his back, but he showed what fight he had. He deserves it."

Though Federer refuses to accept the title of the greatest tennis player to walk the planet the one thing he cannot deny is he is by far the most successful in the history of the sport and there is no debating that. Seventeen grand slams, three more than any other underlines the status he now holds but that is but one record, a huge one yes but just one of many the Swiss has set or broken. Federer has maintained such a consistant quality of play and remarkably injury free career at the top of the game as long as he has is what impresses me, when u look at a younger Rafa and Novak and their well documented injuries one would wonder how does he do it?

Has there ever been a better sportsman, full stop, than Roger Federer? I'm clear in my answer to that... just now its been underlined!

Jade Christopher Bentley Adams (JCBA)

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