Nadal is a Ninja Turtle and proves Federer is not the GOAT

I wrote a post probably 3 weeks before the French Open predicting that this was the year that Roger Federer would win on the dirt at Roland Garros... well, he got to the finals didn't he? And then got absolutely obliterated by the King of Klay, Rafael Nadal.

One of the reasons I thought Federer would win is that after spending much of the beginning of the year battling mono that Fed would come back refreshed, hungry, and ready to compete with Nadal. Unfortunately, for me and for fans of good tennis, that was not the case as Federer basically rolled over for Nadal only winning a combined 4 games in 3 sets. The trashing of Federer was probably most disappointing in that a player who is consistently mentioned as the greatest of all time (GOAT) showed few signs of life, and quit after getting broken at 3-3 in the second set. Frankly, that is not something that the GOAT does, or, in my mind, should do. Is Federer the most talented player ever? Yes. Does he have the most beautiful game to watch? Yes. Is he the greatest champion? No. That title is still reserved for Pete Sampras. Until Federer wins a couple of matches like Sampras did - while vomiting at the US Open, or over coming emotion after the death of his coach at the Australian - Sampras is the greatest.

I mean, its not as though playing against Nadal is easy... Nadal has been playing at an extraordinary high level throughout the 2 weeks in Paris, only allowing an opponent to get more than 4 games in a set throughout the tournament. This was all despite a particularly grueling condensed clay court season where Nadal played 3 Masters Series tournaments in 4 weeks.

Of the two competitors on Centre Court on Sunday only Nadal looked like he had the desire to be the greatest of all time...