Tomas Berdych, Robin Soderling and David Ferrer in Macau
MACAU (AP)—Roger Federer is tennis’ all-time best player—at least in the opinion of some of his top-ranked peers. Despite having won only the Australian Open this year while Nadal won the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, Federer is still considered the greatest because he has won a record 16 Grand Slam tournaments. “Rafa is probably the best player in the history of Spain.
But in the world, at this moment—maybe it’s Federer because he has more Grand Slams and more titles,” fellow Spaniard and 11th-ranked David Ferrer said Saturday in the southern Chinese city Macau on the sidelines of a four-man exhibition.
Sweden’s Robin Soderling agreed: “He has won so many Grand Slams already, so many titles, but to me, Roger is still the best.” Added seventh-ranked Czech Tomas Berdych: “To be the player who won the most Grand Slams, he is still missing a couple of them. Still, I think it is a long way to go for him.”
But the players in Macau were quick to point out that the 24-year-old Nadal is five years younger than Federer and still has a long career ahead of him, barring injuries. Nadal is currently the top-ranked player in the world and Federer is No. 3.
“Rafa is still very young. If he’s going to be healthy, if he has a lot more years to play, he could definitely give it a shot. I think he has the chance to be known as the world’s best player ever,” Soderling said. The fifth-ranked Swede lost to Nadal in this year’s French Open final. The players were also asked about the difficulty of winning a Grand Slam tournament in an era dominated by Federer and Nadal.
“I think I can say for all of us here that I think everybody is trying to chase them as close as possible,” said Berdych, runner-up at Wimbledon in July.
p/s : Federer is still leading in term of Grand Slam titles ... for now :)
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