Who is the greatest men's tennis player of all time?

Singles final match against Andy Murray of Great Britain on day thirteen of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 8, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Who’s the greatest men’s singles tennis player of all time? Such an exercise will be futile and incomplete without statistics. It is always difficult to compare champions from different eras and predict how they would have fared against each other.

Most tennis critics, pundits, aficionados and fans seem to be in agreement that it’s Roger Federer. Even his peers swear by him. And that, as most professional players would say, is the ultimate compliment. Recognition from your fellow adversaries is more satisfying than plaudits from pundits and fans.

I have narrowed the suspects to Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Rod Laver. Let us examine the candidature of each of the 4.

Rod Laver was head and shoulders above the next best player of his generation. For any comparison to be possible, we need to imagine an era where all 4 players are playing at their best. Laver won the Grand Slam once as an amateur in 1962 and once as a professional in 1969. But the one thing that could go against him is that he was only 5 foot 8 inches and the others are all over six feet tall.

Tennis in the modern era is about brute power, endurance and physical fitness. Not that the current players lack skill, but in the modern day game, deft touches and sublime skill can only take you so far. An individual of average height is not going to have the power to match up with far superior athletes.

Pete Sampras was at one time the record holder of the maximum number of Grand Slam titles in singles (14). Moreover, he had worthy opponents in Agassi, Becker, Edberg and Courier. In spite of this, he held the record of maximum number of weeks at No.1. But the one blemish in his record is that he never won the French Open, and therefore, could not complete the career Grand Slam.

Like Laver, Nadal and Federer have completed the career Grand Slam, though not in a calendar year. Federer has won 17 Grand Slam titles and Nadal has won 12, but Federer is coming to the end of his career. Nadal, if he stays clear of injuries, and if his dodgy knees don’t give in, has at least 5 years before he calls it a day.

If Federer has an impressive 7 titles at Wimbledon, then Nadal has a mind boggling eight titles at Roland Garros. Also, Federer and Nadal play at a time when there is far greater depth in the men’s game and where there are possibilities of upsets even in the early rounds of tournaments.

Nadal has an Olympic gold(2008) while Federer has an Olympic silver.

Nadal has a superior head to head record against all his 3 main rivals (Federer 20-10), Djokovic (20-15) and Murray (13-5), whereas Federer has lost more matches to both Nadal and Murray(9-11), even though he leads Djokovic (16-13) in their personal rivalry. But 55% of Nadal’s wins over Federer are on clay(11), a surface on which he is unarguably the greatest of all time. On other surfaces he just enjoys a marginal edge (9-8).

In addition to that, he has had to contend with Federer, Djokovic and Murray his entire career, whereas Federer had little competition in the first 5 years of his reign. However, that cannot be held against Federer. He can only play who appears against him on the other side of the court

Federer holds the record for appearing in most Grand Slam finals, and most consecutive appearances in the semis and quarters of Grand Slams. He is also the joint 3rd highest in most titles won on the ATP tour (with McEnroe at 77), behind Lendl (94) and Connors (109). He has also won the 4th highest number of matches ever on the ATP tour with 908.

Nadal may one day go on to surpass Federer’s achievements, but he is 5 Grand Slam titles short of matching Federer’s tally currently. And finally, both Laver and Sampras have given their vote to Federer. As I said earlier, that’s the ultimate compliment for the Swiss maestro.

So, I am going with Roger Federer, but only just .