A very good frind of mine, the senior Graphic Designer for the Erickson Tribune, Gerry Fey and I were talking in great length about the weekend’s sporting events and we got into the discussion of whether Roger Federer and Tiger Woods were really the best there ever was in their respective sports.

Well, believe it or not, Gerry had an answer, and backed it up with facts and stats. His take on the whole subject was fascinating, so I asked him to put it down to share with the you all.

Here is his take. Enjoy:

With the golf and tennis worlds getting back to normal this weekend, this seems like an appropriate time to put the accomplishments of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer into the proper light.

I would argue that Woods, right now, is the best golfer ever to play the game, while Federer still has A LOT of work to do for anyone to make the claim that Federer is best.

If you missed the action, Tiger Woods won the Memorial Tournament Sunday, putting him in prime position to make yet another run at the U.S. Open, a major tournament he’s won three times before. By the way, Tiger came back from 4 strokes down to win after shooting a 74 earlier in the tournament, his worst competitive score in two years.

Tiger- The best of the best?

Meanwhile, Roger Federer captured his career sweep of the four grand slam tournaments, finally winning the French Open, his only struggle in an otherwise spectacular resume. He becomes only the sixth player to accomplish the feat.

If you’re counting, that’s 14 grand slam tournaments for Federer and 14 major titles for Woods.

Now, comparing the two is practically impossible, given the different sports they play. However, what I think is possible to do is compare the athletes to their predecessors. Federer ties Pete Sampras for most grand slam wins, while Tiger sits four back from Jack Nicklaus’ unbelievable record of 18 majors.

This snapshot would give the impression that Federer, who still has plenty of tennis left to play, will finish his career head and shoulders above Sampras, while Woods has more work to match Nicklaus.

But let’s look at Federer and Woods’ competition compared to Sampras and Nicklaus.

Looking at the World Tennis Rankings right now, Federer is ranked second behind Rafael Nadal. But that’s not the most interesting stat. Right now, in the top 10, not counting Nadal and Federer, only two players have won a grand slam, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick — one each.

Here’s tennis’ current top 10, with their grand slam wins:

Rafael Nadal (6)
Roger Federer (14)
Andy Murray
Novak Djokovic (1)
Juan Martin del Potro
Andy Roddick (1)
Gilles Simon
Fernando Verdasco
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Fernando Gonzalez
 
In contrast, here are the tennis rankings on June 7, 1999, which was the 11th pro season for Sampras, equal to Federer’s current career:

Yevgeny Kafelnikov (2)
Patrick Rafter (2)
Pete Sampras (12)
Andre Agassi (5)
Richard Krajicek (1)
Tim Henman
Gustavo Kuerten (1)
Alex Corretja
Marcelo Rios
Mark Philippoussis
 
Sampras’ competition, by this chart, was much tougher. Basically, these days it’s Nadal or Federer and that’s it. Also, take into account that Federer’s first season as a professional was 1998. He did not win a grand slam until Wimbeldon 2003. Now let’s look at those who have won grand slams NOT named Nadal or Federer since 1998:

Djokovic, Roddick, Marat Safin, Gaston Giaudio, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Andre Agassi**, Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt, Albert Costa, Thomas Johannson, Goran Ivonisevic, Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Patrick Rafter*, Petr Korda, Carlos Moya.

These are the players NOT named Sampras who won grand slams from 1988-1999, the first 11 years of Sampras’ career:

Kafelnikov, Rafter*, Agassi**, Richard Krajicek, Kuerten, Moya, Korda, Boris Becker*, Thomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera, Jim Courier*, Stefan Edberg*, Michael Stich, Andres Gomez, Ivan Lendel*, Michael Chang*, Mats Wilander*.

Bold denotes repeats. *-denotes Hall of Famer. **-denotes probable Hall of Famer

You be the judge on which list is more impressive. Eight Hall of Famers won grand slams in Sampras’ first 11 years of tennis. Sure, some of Federer’s competition could put together Hall of Fame careers, but I don’t think so.

Part 2 coming soon-

“Digging Deeper: Who did they beat?”