Tennis fans – or some of them, at any rate – are up in arms after GQ called Roger Federer “the greatest tennis player of all time”.
In the wake of his incredible comeback win at the Australian Open this year, the 18-time Grand Slam winner was named GQ’s ‘Man of the Year‘.
“Roger Federer was supposed to be finished,” wrote journalist Rosecrans Baldwin. “Or at least exiting gracefully, getting on with his transition to post-tennis things. But then, in January, after five years without a Grand Slam and a season sidelined by injury, he went ahead and won again. Not as the unflappable perfectionist but, for the first time, as a rangy underdog.”
It’s a great feature [read it here], and GQ has obviously been plugging it hard.
We caught up with the greatest tennis player of all time https://t.co/I5oSpnmxeX pic.twitter.com/Qwj4wk1Kkh
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 21, 2017
But there’s more than a few Serena Williams fans getting mad at GQ here.
@GQMagazine You spelled Serena Williams wrong. No disrespect to the great Fed, but let’s look at championships eh?
— Stephanie Tinsley (@AgentTinsley) March 21, 2017
@GQMagazine that’s not Serena
— justin lew block (@JBlock49) March 21, 2017
@GQMagazine Serena looks different. pic.twitter.com/65zOjS5DxZ
— ? (@jusxtennis) March 21, 2017
@GQMagazine tell this white man to move over we can’t see serena
— Mariah Jasmine (@firemarsbar) March 21, 2017
But this looks nothing like Serena… ?? https://t.co/l2SVVTioOI
— April (@ReignOfApril) March 21, 2017
Of course, there’s absolutely people arguing on the other side of this.
@AgentTinsley @GQMagazine Federer’s been more consistent with greater competition. Serena’s never dealt w players like Nadal, Novak & Murray
— Rich Homie Scon (@mbcuda) March 21, 2017
@MpumzaNgwenya @mbcuda @AgentTinsley @GQMagazine You can’t compare males to females. Serena would get crushed by every Top 100 male
— You’reWorstNightmare (@DavidJBradford1) March 21, 2017
@GQMagazine If you actually follow tennis, you’d know this statement is very accurate for a lot of reasons.
— Rich Homie Scon (@mbcuda) March 21, 2017
@MpumzaNgwenya @stillwellgray @joshuanassiri @GQMagazine Serena is awesome and certainly the best women’s player of all time, but she’s not better than Federer
— Don Hartman (@icavalera63) March 21, 2017
Okay. It’s not easy to compare male and female tennis players – or even to compare tennis players throughout history – but that doesn’t mean a lot of very smart, sports-minded people haven’t tried
In June 2016, ESPN put Federer at #1 in their ranking of the top 20 tennis players of all time, with Steffi Graf coming in at #2 and Williams at #3.
Three years earlier, Dr. Ian McHale, a sports-focused statistician, used a mathematical analysis of the stats to declare American Jimmy Connors the GOAT. In that instance, Swede Bjorn Borg came in at #2, and Federer was #3 (Dr. McHale only looked at stats from male players).
Basically? Determining exactly who is the GOAT is basically impossible, and the whole thing is very subjective, anyway.
“Most experts and ex professionals like myself believe it’s impossible to know who is the ‘greatest’ of all time,” wrote ex pro Pat Cash in 2013. “The best we can do is to try and understand who is the best at one time or another and compare for fun. The ‘greatest”‘ also depends on your definition of great.”
But uh – maybe in this case, just let Federer (and GQ) have it.
Photo: GQ.
