Roger Federer still the greatest of all says Robin Soderling
World number 5 Robin Soderling has claimed that Swiss tennis maestro Roger Federer is still the greatest of all despite Rafael Nadal’s stellar year.
The world number 1 from Spain registered himself as the seventh tennis player in the history of the game to achieve a career Grand Slam as he secured his first United States Open trophy with a win over Serbian counterpart Novak Djokovic in this month's title
battle in New York.
The 24-year-old Rafael Nadal has now captured a total of 9 Grand Slam trophies but has a long way to go before he crosses his Swiss rivals’ record of 16 major titles - the most in the history of men’s tennis.
Robin has lost to both of them in consecutive seasons in the French Open. However, the Swede said that despite Rafa’s career Grand Slam this season, Roger Federer still remains the yardstick for brilliance in the men's game.
"He has won so many Grand Slams already, so many titles but to me, Roger is still the best. But Rafa is still very young so if he's going to be healthy, he has a lot more years to play and he could definitely give it a shot. He has the chance to be known as
the world's best player ever,” said the Swede on Saturday in Macau where he is going to participate in an exhibition championship along with three other top 12 players, namely David Ferrer, Nikolay Davydenko and Tomas Berdych.
World number seven Tomas Berdych, who defeated Roger Federer in this season’s quarter-final round at the Wimbledon Championships fell at the hands of Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the title battle, claimed that the Spaniard has enjoyed a stellar season.
"It is not easy to win three Grand Slams (French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Still, I think it's a lot to go for him to get the best player so far in history but he's a great athlete and a great person,” added Soderling.
David Ferrer, who is currently ranked number 11 in the world, said that his compatriot tennis player could not yet claim to be the greatest of all time.
"I think Rafa is the best player in history for Spain, But in this moment maybe it's Federer because he has more Grand Slams and more titles,” said Ferrer.
Rafael and Roger have captured 25 of the last 30 Grand Slam titles, setting up a blistering pace that the rest of tennis players on the men’s side have failed to match without any measure of speculation.
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