Number of singles Grand Slam titles the legends would have won if they had won all their final appearances.

You reach a Grand Slam final and you don’t win. That has to suck!!! Here is a scenario where the legends win all their major final appearances. See where they end up on the food chain. 

Lendl – 19

Sampras – 18

Laver – 17

Tilden – 17

Rosewall – 16

Borg – 16

Connors – 15

Agassi – 15

Emerson – 15

McEnroe – 11

Federer – 11

Wilander – 11

Edberg – 11

Becker – 10

Perry – 10

And this is what they actually ended up with:

Sampras – 14

Emerson – 12

Borg – 11

Laver – 11

Tilden – 10

Federer – 10

Agassi – 8

Lendl – 8

Connors – 8

Perry – 8

Rosewall – 8

McEnroe – 7

Wilander – 7

Becker – 6

Edberg – 6

Who is hurting whom in this Federer-Nadal rivalry?

Normally whoever comes away with the most titles and majors is winning the rivalry, right? To narrow it down even further, it has to be the ones, won at the expense of the other.

At McEnroe-Borg rivalry, their H2H is 7-7. But as far as the majors go, McEnroe won the 1980 and 1981 US Open and 1981 Wimbledon by beating Borg in the finals, whereas Borg just won the 1980 Wimbledon by beating McEnroe in the finals. That’s 3-1 in favor of McEnroe. McEnroe the winner!!!

Sampras-Agassi rivalry: Sampras leads the H2H 20-14. Together they clashed in 9 majors. Sampras won 6 of those encounters, 3 for Agassi. Sampras winner in every category here. No contest.

Federer-Nadal rivalry: They have clashed in 3 majors. Nadal winning the two FO’s, Federer winning at Wimbledon.

Federer is really the one hurting in this rivalry, big time. If Federer wasn’t in the picture, it seems Nadal would have still won the 20 titles he has by age 20. OK, three more.

But if Nadal wasn’t there, Federer probably would have become the only man, other than Rod Laver to win two Grand Slams, and maybe this year, could have become the only man to win the third one.

Nadal is the only player who has denied Federer that shot at ‘tennis immortality’. That record is bigger than topping Sampras’s 14 majors, anyday. Federer will never forget this thorn in his side, despite whatever else he does, when the smoke clears.

Sampras can take comfort in knowing that it was not just one player he had to solve to master clay and that he was never in the finals. His best result was semifinals in 1996. But to first of all, come so close as the semifinals and the finals two straight years and then to lose to the same player who eventually wins it all, has to pull on your strings.

Nadal is not really worried about Federer since he has a terrific 2-2 H2H against him on hard surface. Being only 20 and still mastering that surface, he should be more than happy, to have that record against arguably the best tennis player in history. Specially when specialists of those surfaces have a losing record against Federer.

Federer you have to be smart and talk to Nadal. Does everything have to come to fighting? You are both matured adults and should solve your problems like grown up do: By cheating!!! There – I said it.

You need to take Nadal out for dinner and have a man to man talk. Make a deal. If he lets you win the Roland Garros, you will let him win the Wimbledon. Heck, throw in the US Open too.

You know how to play these matches, don’t you? Just like you played at that freak show two days ago at the ‘Battle of the Surfaces’. You win the first one, then let him win the next. Just alternate and the foolish public will think you are having a close match and they are getting their money’s worth. 

You are not doing anything new. William sisters have been doing it forever.

This is how adults achieve success, don’t you know? You have to act like adults now. Before long you will be entering the adult world after tennis, so this will be good practice.

Besides, you have so much to gain. Just one Roland Garros gets you the stamp of the greatest ever. Without it, just one of the best. Massive difference.

You have to get this big one, hook or by crook. Nobody will know. Nobody comes on this stupid site, anyway. The ones who do, won’t understand. Believe me. Trust me. Its all for your good. It’s a win win win win win win for both of you. In the real world, take my word, we don’t care how you get there, as long as you are there. So there you have it. Go for it and like that lion said in ‘Lion King’ – it’s our little secret.

Nadal’s girl friend.

Analysing the draw at Rome.

There are 64 players competing for the hardware at Rome. Here is how it looks for the top two players in the world.

Federer is looking at a dangerous clay court specialist in the opening round, Nicolas Almagro from Spain. Almagro is fresh from winning his first title of the year last month at Valencia, Spain on clay. This was his second consecutive title at Valencia. Click here if you need more info on him.

Next round will most likely be Richard Gasquet who has to overcome a talented Verdasco to get through. Mind you, Gasquet is one of the few players who has defeated Federer and his only win came on clay at Monte Carlo in 2005. But Federer did get his revenge by eliminating him in Hamburg a month later. Although Federer has a 5-1 advantage, it is not an easy third round match.

In the next round is a dark horse and a possible spoiler, Tomas Berdych. He is one of the most improved player on the tour this year and did manage to reach the semifinals at Monte Carlo, falling to the eventual champion, Nadal.

Semifinal clash is likely to be against Gonzalez who has the rising youngster, Monfils to contend with in his half of the draw.

Nadal has a tough draw with Youzhny, Djokovic, Murray, Robredo, Ferrero in his half. He is looking at Youzhny in his second match. Youzhny has 3-3 record against Nadal and has beaten him in the last two clashes at the US Open and Dubai this year. However, when they met here last year, Nadal waxed him 6-0, 6-2.

His next opponent will be Djokovic who has to overcome Baghdatis or Carlos Moya to earn the date with Nadal. Nadal has a 2-1 advantage having lost at Miami this year, but when they played their only match only clay at Roland Garros last year, Nadal won in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. But Djokovic is in the finals at Estoril and if he wins there, it will be different match against Nadal.

Nadal’s semifinal encounter will be either against Tommy Robredo or Andy Murray. Robredo has not won a title yet and is not having a stellar clay season so far. Murray can capitalize on it if he is physically 100 percent.

Nevertheless, Nadal has his work cut out for him and will have to be at his best to reach the finals and win it again for the third straight time.

Here comes another chance for Federer, to redeem whatever has happened so far this season and take another shot to getting closer to possibly making history.

May the best man win!!!

Click here for the draw.

Djokovic reaches fourth final of the season.

Are we there yet? We are getting close!!! And that’s the last time you asked that, OK.

Djokovic reached the fourth final this season, eliminating none other than World’s No. 7, Tommy Robredo, a clay court master in – get this – straight sets 7-5, 6-1.

He will be meeting Richard Gasquet from France in the final. At 19 years of age, you are not supposed to be winning titles on hard surfaces AND reaching the finals of a clay court tournament by defeating veteran clay court specialists?

In the quarterfinal, Djokovic had trouble with his back and a trainer had to come out for a massage. He seems to have a weak back. It also bothered him against Nadal at Indian Wells.

Djokovic is 1-0 against Gasquet, but they have never played on this surface. Is this the future? Will we be seeing these youngsters at most finals in the very near future?

It will be Djokovic’s third title of the year, but more importantly his first one on clay. Perfect timing for the three big ones coming up – Rome, Hamburg and FO.

Federer named one of the Time Magazine’s ’100 Mot Influential People in the World’.

Are you freaking kidding me???? A tennis player on an ‘influential’ list? – in the world? That’s got to be a first and maybe the last for a tennis player. Way to go, Roger.

Click here. Read the write up on him also, by Rod.