Ken Rosewall: The Real GOAT? What About Roger Federer or Rod Laver?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: March 8, 2010

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The last couple of years, tennis fans and pundits have been engaged in a GOAT debate.

Eurosport is even running a fictive GOAT tournament, where the readers decide who proceeds in each round—helped by tennis writer Simon Reed's own pick and analysis.

Is Federer the GOAT, ahead of all the other contenders?

More and more people, who buy into the argument of there being a GOAT, seem to believe so due to his play and to his records. The other top contenders for the title are the usual suspects: Rod Laver, Björn Borg, and Pete Sampras.

Most have left Sampras out of the discussion after Federer beat his Grand Slam record. After all, Federer has won on all surfaces and Sampras only made it to the semis of Roland Garros once.

But Borg is still mentioned.

The iceman retired early and there is a lot of speculation on what could have been. Heck, he only went to Australia once so in effect he was really just playing three Slams a year and retired early.

Furthermore, his win percentage overall in his career and in the Slams he entered, are slightly better than the Swiss Maestro's, though not by much. As Federer has continued to extend his Grand Slam record, even the name of Borg seems to have somewhat vanished from the GOAT discussion.

Now only one man is left: Rod Laver, the two-fold calendar GS winner (1962 as an amateur and 1969 as professional).

He stands at 11 Slams, but more importantly there are those five years from 1963-1967, where he was in his prime and was banned from the Slams as he turned pro as pro's weren't allowed to enter the Slams before the Open Era began in 1968.

How many could he not have won, if he had not shut himself out by turning pro?

More than 20  is often presumed.

Some say 25.

Tim Ruffin declares 19 to be the number given that he won eight pro Slams during his five years of the ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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