Roger Federer won his 15th grandsslam title to become the all time leader in grand slam victories. A tremendous achievement. I find it interesting that Federer's total is rather similar to Nicklaus' total victories in Major golf tournaments. The games are so different. The nature of scoring in tennis, win a game by 2 points , win a set by 2 games, acts as a means of making sure the more dominant player wins. In any given period the top tennis player in the world rarely loses because the game is designed to specifically discover the better player.
Golf on the other hand has such a tight dispersion of scores with each stroke counted that even a small number of subpar holes takes one out of the lead quickly. A great player cannot take down a weaker player, except psychologically, because he doesn't directly play his competition. So a leser player on a great day has a chance beat anyone. Thus golf leads to a multiplicity of winners over a season. Unless you are Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods. The statistics for those two are so far superior to others that it makes moot the argument over who ae the greatest golfers.
I was prepared to do a post about tennis and to wax nostalgic about the good old days of McEnroe-Borg duels, Connors, Lendl, when not just the women played serve and volley, where there were extended rallies, and players covering the court with unreal speed and grace, the days before the improved equipment made it all about the BIG SERVE. Then I tuned in to the Federer-Roddick match and it was...tremendous. Despite the high number of aces, there were many good rallies and man, can those guys cover the court. It was absolute greatness. Maybe I will start watching tennis again. BBL- interesting insights about the differences in play between golf and tennis. Makes what Nicklaus and Woods have done all the more amazing.
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