“Federer is a much better player than Nadal,” says Jonas Bjorkman
The Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer is currently ranked number three in the world by ATP. He has captured only two trophies so far this season, however the nine-time men’s doubles major winner, Jonas Bjorkman still has no doubts whatsoever about who is
the top tennis contender in the world.
"There is a difference in class and Federer is a much, much better player than world number one Rafael Nadal at this point in time. Nadal will need to stay healthy for a long time and break all of Federer’s records before it's even worth discussing," said
Jonas on Tuesday.
Bjorkman's assessment may raise a couple of eyebrows as the Spaniard has grabbed a total of seven titles so far in 2010 including three Grand Slam victories, the French Open, Wimbledon as well as the United States Open where the 24-year-old Nadal also successfully
completed his career Grand Slam last month in New York.
The 29-year-old Federer on the other hand, who turned professional back in 1998, has won a total of sixteen Grand Slam titles so far in his career. He is also one of the seven contenders to grab the career Grand Slam and one of the three to do so on three
different courts. The Swiss has participated in an unprecedented twenty two major finals in his career. The Basel born also enjoys the record of making his way into the semi-finals or better of twenty three major events in a row for over five years from 2004
to 2010. Moreover, the Fed Express also shares the record of advancing into a total of ten major finals in a row and played in eighteen to nineteen over four years from 2005 to 2010. The right hander has also won four ATP World Tour Finals and seventeen ATP
Masters Series championships. He also lifted a gold medal at the Olympic Games in doubles competition along with his countrymen Stanislas Wawrinka back in 2008.
Considering his phenomenal record, Jonas was adamant that the nine-time major champion Rafael could only be compared to the Fed Express once the world number one had matched Roger’s staying power at the big four competitions.
A great majority of tennis critics, sports analysts and former and current players on the tour strongly believe that Federer’s record of twenty three major semi final appearance is almost impossible for others to break in the near future.
"Nadal has to come up to the same level when it comes to grand slam trophies before who is the greatest topic can even be discussed. It's a question of injuries and motivation and how long Nadal can continue, but the big difference is that Federer is such
a great ambassador. He does so much to market tennis,” said Jonas, who is now working as the marketing director for the Stockholm Open.
In spite of the fact that the owner of sixteen Grand Slam trophies, Roger Federer has endured a lean year, in contrast to his high standards, Jonas was happy over the fact that he did well to convince the Fed Express to play in Sweden.
He was of the view that Federer missed the championship just once before and wanted to perform well this time. He further added that the Swiss is a superb ambassador of the sports and does not normally skip events, and he agreed to play in Sweden on his
own will.
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