re: Federer is the #GOAT

quote:

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All I have left is butthurt about technology or court/ball conditions contributing to neverending 30 shot rally wars of attrition.

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I have to admit that I under-emphasized this factor in my analysis. Some will argue that if he's the GOAT, he should have been able to adapt to the newer strings/rackets and slower courts, but in my opinion it's not that simple.

Imagine coming up in an era where, with the exception of clay, almost all courts played fast and everyone was on a level playing field with regard to rackets and strings. You tailored your game to succeed in these conditions and completely dominated the sport.

Then suddenly everything starts to change. Rackets are being developed with much larger head sizes and sweet spots, string technology improves extensively allowing for ridiculous spin, courts are slowed down to create longer rallies, and different balls are being used at seemingly every tournament.

Naturally, all of the young phenoms climbing the ranks have playing styles that are suited to the newer technolgies and conditions. At first you think your game is strong enough to fight them off despite these differences. When they start getting the best of you, that's when you finally decide it's time to change.

But where do you start? After 20-25 years of playing tennis, every facet of your game is calibrated perfectly. Any change in racket size, racket weight, string type, or string tension will affect all of your shots in different ways. In other words, if you switch to a string that's made for more spin, your shots may start landing shorter in the court, so you will probably want to reduce string tension to compensate. But now your serves begin landing a few inches long or wide due to the new string setup. All of this takes time to calibrate, especially when you are older.

And you can't just switch to a 2-hand backhand on a whim, or try a new grip to add extreme spin to your game overnight. These are things that have to be developed at an early age and practiced for years. Not to mention the longer rallies require a level of fitness that was never needed in tennis until the late 2000's.

This is why he had such a long adjustment period, and why so many people (myself included) thought he was done about 6 years ago. It could be argued that remaining a top-3 player for the majority of the last 10 years is more of an accomplishment than what he did in the first half of his career.