Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world today, and one of the most driven and naturally competitive athletes of all time. But he's just not quite the master of his craft that Roger Federer is. There is every reason to believe the 25-year old Swiss icon will continue his current path to tennis immortality and lay rightful claim to the title of "greatest ever to play the game."
Federer has dominated the game of tennis for three consecutive years now, and that fact simply cannot be challenged. Federer has never lost his No. 1 ranking in the world, while Tiger has. Tiger is on his own fast track to golf greatness, but he hasn't shown the consistent dominance in his sport that Federer has displayed on his way to 10 Grand Slam tennis titles.
Watching Federer play, it becomes readily apparent that he is an athlete who transcends his sport, with his combination of uncanny tennis skills and exceptional athleticism. He has notched 10 Grand Slam titles since besting Mark Philipoussis in the 2003 Wimbledon finals. I'll do some quick math for you, that's a whopping 77 percent success rate. In those 10 finals, he has lost a mere four sets!
From a numbers perspective, Federer has clearly been a more dominant player in his sport. Woods' 12 Major victories have come over a longer period of time and with more appearances.
Now, Mr. Hodes will probably try to fill your ear with propaganda about how much more difficult it is to win a Major in golf than a tennis Grand Slam, but it's just not true. While playing 72 holes at Augusta or Royal Troon is a truly arduous task, navigating a Grand Slam field successfully is an even more formidable one.
In the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer beat David Nalbandian (currently ranked 11th in the world) in the quarterfinals. In the semis, he decisively beat the former No. 1 ranked and two-time Grand Slam champion, Lleyton Hewitt in four sets. In the finals, he defeated Andre Agassi, one of the greatest competitors of our generation.
In these three victories, Federer dropped just two sets. In golf Majors, players play the same 18-hole course four days in a row. Surviving a tennis Grand Slam is a more compelling and challenging task, as players must face different opponents with contrasting styles every time they play while constantly adapting and modifying their game accordingly. Last time I checked, the 575-yard par five at Augusta, Pink Dogwood, doesn't become longer or have its fairway narrowed each night in the first week of April.
If I haven't provided enough justification for you so far, consider the following. In tennis, players face opponents who can actually make them fail. Federer has got to move around the court with lightning speed, precisely placing ground strokes down the baseline, volleying at the net, and returning 135 mile-per-hour serves.
Granted, Tiger Woods brought a new kind of athleticism to the game of golf, with which the field has not necessarily caught up, and he may very well end his career regarded as the best golfer to play the game. But Roger Federer is the more dominant player in the more challenging sport.
