The Sports Truth

The Sports Truth is proud to bring you The Weigh-In, in which we break down prospective match-ups within the world of sports (and sometimes pop culture) that you may never have considered. Because they are pointless, and above all, not real.

Our latest edition is a showdown of tennis “stars” with vastly different backgrounds who will face-off in the 2nd round of the Australian Open. One is a 12-time Grand Slam Champion. The other appeared in his record 62nd Grand Slam during the 2008 Australian Open. Who will emerge victorious when tennis’ superstar Roger Federer squares off against 20-year veteran Fabrice Santoro? Let’s take a look:

1. Physical Stats

Roger Federer: 26, 6′1″, 190 lbs, right-handed, one-handed backhand
Fabrice Santoro: 35, 5′9″, 163 lbs, right-handed, two-handed backhand and forehand
Edge: Santoro (a two-handed forehand? That’s got to be worth something)

Fabrice Santoro takes on Roger Federer in the 2nd round of the Australian Open.

2. Nationality

Roger Federer: Swiss
Fabrice Santoro: French
Edge: Federer (no one likes the French)

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Once again, Sports Illustrated has ignored the most dominant player in all of sports.

While the various merits of Roger Federer’s career have been debated ad nauseum (Is Federer more impressive than Tiger Woods?, Is Federer better than Pete Sampras?, or is Federer even human?) no one disagrees that Federer has been a worthy candidate for the number of end-of-year achievement awards handed out by a multitude of sports journalist entities.

Roger Federer’s amazing achievements, year after year, continue to get ignored.

None is more acclaimed than Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award, an award Federer has astonishingly never won. 2008 proved no different with Brett Favre’s admirable year garnering him the award over another ho-hum dominant season from Federer.

Consider his 2008 athletic achievements alone: In 2007 he set the alltime record for consecutive weeks ranked No. 1 at 205 and counting; he won a record fourth consecutive U.S. Open; a fifth consecutive Wimbledon; and three of the four grand slam events. His off the court efforts as a UNICEF international Goodwill Ambassador is well-documented and he was awarded the Laurenus Sportsman of the Year Award. As amazing as all of this is, it’s Roger’s second consecutive year of all of these achievements.

No one is saying he needs to win the award ever year, but how has he not won it once?

MACAU - Pete Sampras still contends that Roger Federer will surpass his all-time record of 14 major championships. In his third exhibition match with Federer, the former top ranked played in the world defeated the younger and widely considered better Swiss star 7-6 (8), 6-4 proving that his assertion is something he’s choosing not to do anything about.

The obviously older Pete Sampras went 1-2 in exhibition matches vs. Roger Federer.

Sampras continued to echo his stance that his time was in the 90s and he will not come out of retirement. Too bad. It’s obvious the seven time Wimbledon winner could compete with today’s players and probably pick up another Wimbledon title to add to his record. Federer did not help quell any wishful thinking from Sampras backers by saying he felt Sampras could beat the top five players in the world on a fast surface.

Simply beating a player as talented as Federer is amazing enough at 36 years old. In their third match, Sampras was able to borrow a page out of the seemingly unbeatable Federer’s tennis play book by not even facing a break point in the straight set win. Or maybe it is Federer who is borrowing a strategy out of Sampras’ arsenal.

It is hard to think that Federer was playing at 100 percent against the man he proclaimed was his idol growing up, especially after winning their first two exhibitions in straight sets. Federer fueled the fire by saying “It’s been tough beating my idol the last two times. I’m happy that he got me at least once.” Not exactly the killer instinct you’d expect from someone trying to win.

A correspondent from the Sports Truth recently caught up with Boris Becker in Dallas, Tx., where the three-time Wimbledon winner was visiting on business. Becker gratefully endured an impromptu discussion (and photo session) with our staffer, who proclaimed the big-serving German one of tennis’ all-time greats.

Although he enjoyed a good-natured laugh when our reporter expressed his happiness that Ivan Lendl never won Wimbledon, Becker wouldn’t say if he considered himself among the 10 greatest players in history. But this brush with greatness got the Sports Truth editorial board thinking. Who are the top 10 players of all time? Where would Becker and Lendl rank among them? We set out to answer that.

This experiment proved extraordinarily difficult and more than a little subjective, but here’s the list we came up with. The Sports Truth’s Top 10 Tennis Players of All Time:

10 (tie). John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg. Okay, we realize it’s a cop out to have a four-way tie at #10. But these standouts deserve recognition, albeit a step below the nine we’ve ranked higher. Had they played in different decades, and not taken several titles away from each other, all may have compiled even more exceptional records.

Their record in Grand Slam finals is eerily similar: Becker 6-4; Edberg 6-5; McEnroe 7-4; Wilander 7-4. Of the four, only Wilander won the French Open and failed to win Wimbledon. Few enjoyed the All-England Club stage more than Becker, a seven-time finalist and three-time winner. McEnroe’s heroics (and bad-boy antics) in winning four U.S. Opens from 1979-1984 made him a legend at America’s Grand Slam event. Edberg coolly revolutionized the serve-and-volley style.

9. Jimmy Connors. The outrageous lefty edges out the fearsome foursome above by virtue of winning eight slams, but also due to his longevity. He won his last major in ‘83, but a bunch of Connors’ epic performances came many years later. His back-to-back U.S. Open quarterfinal duels with Andre Agassi in the U.S. Open quarterfinals (’88-’89) marked a true changing of the guard, while his unseeded run to the semis (’91) at age 39 was one of the most amazing stories in U.S. Open history. Connors also played for so long that he won the Open on three surfances: clay, grass and hard courts.

8. Bill Tilden. It’s hard to compare a man who’s been dead 53 years to the players of today, but we’ll award Tilden the #8 spot as a tribute to my grandfather, an avid tennis player who - all the way until his death in 1997 at age 89 - insisted Bill was the greatest ever. The 10 majors he won from 1920-1930 certainly support that claim.

Tilden is quite possibly the most paradoxical figure in sports history: A flamboyantly gay man who almost single-handedly changed the image of tennis from that of an elitist, country club activity to a major sport played by world-class athletes, and a fierce competitor whose regimen consisted of smoking heavily and three enormous meals of steak and potatoes daily.

7. Andre Agassi. The greatest statesman, not to mention returner of serve, that tennis has ever known. After bursting on the scene as a teenager with more style than substance, Agassi went on to become one of only five men’s singles players in history to win all four majors. All told, he won eight Grand Slam titles, finished second in seven others, and had countless near misses. Wilander, a Hall of Fame player himself, has said that no one has done more for tennis than Andre. His influence extends beyond the court as well, with countless millions donated to charitable endeavors.

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He’s one of the only players to ever win three Grand Slams in one year, and he’s done it twice. He moves around the court and disassembles foes with breathtaking ease. Elite players raise their games and still can’t touch him. That said, the Sports Truth asks in its latest Face-Off:

Is Roger Federer Human?

YES

Ah yes, another cliché that’s used and abused in the world of sports media to the point where we’re now actually discussing whether Roger Federer is actually a human being or not. Certainly Mr. Federer, who dispatched Andy Roddick Sunday to win his third straight U.S. Open, has put together a run of tennis greatness that seems, well, inhuman.

However, simply because something has not been accomplished by a human before, does not mean that the feat itself is inhuman. By the definition, guys like Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, or anyone who attains what was perceived to be unattainable should no longer be human.

Maybe it is Roger’s ability to play the game with absolutely no emotion — as if winning, losing, making an incredible shot or withstanding a crippling blow simply does not matter to him — that gives him the appearance of not being human.

Certainly even the most stoic human would eventually succumb to the pressure or emotion of the moment and reveal a soft, sensitive human beneath the concrete exterior, right?

Somehow Roger is able to remove himself from seemingly normal, inescapable stimuli and focus on his game, giving him an almost alien-like appearance.

Is this a sign of someone who is not of this world? Or rather is it the beginning of a revolution of athletes who remove all emotion from their play and focus on execution. Rather than argue that it is this quality that makes him not human, why not point out that it is his ability to contain his emotions that makes him so good?

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Roger Federer had won eight of nine Grand Slam finals going into Sunday, but the 25-year-old Swiss star said he was particularly nervous.

The same could be said of anyone playing in front of a new friend for the first time. Especially if that friend were Tiger Woods.

The world’s top golfer attended the U.S. Open final as Federer’s guest, sitting in the front row of his personal box. Federer did not disappoint (he rarely does), besting ninth-seeded American Andy Roddick, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, for his third straight Open crown.

Federer said despite all the pressure surrounding the final in and of itself, he was aware of Woods’ presence.

“You get that feeling. It’s like maybe the first time your parents see you do something special, or somebody comes to you, you really maybe look up to,” Federer said. “For me, it’s like when I go out there and I see Tiger sitting there, it’s like, I try to play well, you know? I try to kind of get my act together and focus and get off to a good start.”

Federer achieved that and then some, taking the first set in 29 minutes to set the tone. While the American battled gamely, taking the second set and pushing Federer to the brink in the third, there was little doubt who would prevail. He demolished Roddick in the fourth and final set, allowing the bewildered opponent only 13 points as he clinched his ninth Grand Slam.

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