Becker on why Federer Cannot be the Greatest Ever
Of course what it appears he means is that an individual player's style may mean that someone could own him, somewhat like Nadal did for a long time. How do you judge?
Grand slam wins counts would put Laver at the top with Two of all of the majors in one calendar year. Then Don Budge who no one ever mentions with his monster backhand.
Total slam event wins would put Federer at the top for Men's.
Then to say without Nadal Federer would have had another five or more French opens ignores that Laver stayed out of the major slam events for almost a decade when he went professional to pay the bills in the Era before open tennis where it was okay to play professionally and play the once amateur events. He may have added another calendar year slam to his total and surely would have added a bunch of slam event wins were it not for being deprived of the opportunity.
On the other hand, had most players not grown up in a town with no tennis instructors of any kind maybe one of them would have won them all. We'll never know. Speculation is all this is. Use the numbers that exist to make an argument.
It seems that Becker is arguing that he would have made life tough for Fed. Sorry, didn't happen.
Then there's Novak.
He might get more support once Fed is out.
