I don’t think you can call Nadal the greatest ever yet. Federer has the record, and unless Nadal eclipses him, it’s tough to not give Federer the crown: Federer’s string of 23 straight Grand Slam semifinals from 2004 to 2010 is a record to behold.

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My biggest complaint about the U.S. Open: The men’s final is always on the opening NFL Sunday. I’ll bop back and forth between the tennis and football, but it does interrupt my enjoyment of both.

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His three-set, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 stomping of Andy Murray was vintage, height-of-his-career Federer. And what made it even sweeter was that Nadal declared Murray the Australian Open champion after he lost to the Scotsman in the quarterfinals.

Nadal was supposed to be the man who passed Federer’s now-record 16 Grand Slam wins. But Federer and Nadal are now showing what makes the greatest champion of all so great: Longevity. Nadal could be dominating tennis right now, but he has not escaped injury. Federer’s march to all-time greatness isn’t just because he can put together a great match, or a great tournament, or a great year, or even a great few years. He’s the greatest ever because he is now working on his seventh consecutive incredible year. Not since 2002 has he lost more than three matches in a season.

And despite being “finished” in 2008, he’s still going and going and going…

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Of all of these, Jordan’s was the most glaring. The tennis outbursts were poor signs of passion and frustration; West’s self-righteous reaction was much of the same. But Jordan clearly planned this out. He had the bully pulpit and he wanted to smack down people who had “dissed” him. It was supposed to be a positive celebration of one of the greatest players of all time, yet it will be forever remembered as a bitter speech by a man who could never have enough. It was an unfortunate decision by Jordan.

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One of the coolest aspects of the win was the Nike commercial that came on just minutes after the match featuring sports greats like Serena Williams and Michael Jordan congratulating Federer. But, most notably and most impressively, it was Pete Sampras congratulating Federer for breaking his record that stood out the  most.

Video after the jump.

Despite having seen Federer pull out so many great wins, I never thought for a moment that he would do it. Serving to force a tiebreak in the first set, he was broken by Roddick. In the second-set tiebreak Roddick led 6-2 before Federer ignited a comeback and won the tiebreak. But as the games went on in the fifth set, Federer just didn’t look in control. I was wrong, and I’m thrilled that I was.

Some wonder what Federer will do now. Relax? Take it easy now that he has the record? No way. Sampras held the record for only seven years, and 23-year-old Nadal is just now coming into his peak and already has six titles. If Federer wants to hold the record for longer than seven years, he may have to win a couple more to put it out of Nadal’s reach.

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Roger Federer won his French Open final rematch Monday, beating Robin Soderling 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). He now stands three wins from the 15th Grand Slam win that at last year’s Wimbledon some said he would never get. Venus Williams advanced to the quarterfinals when Anna Ivanovic retired.

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Roger Federer made his Wimbledon Centre Court debut today in his usual flair (couldn’t Nike get him a better bag this year?) for his match against Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu and his quest for a sixth Championship and record-breaking 15th major.

The 5-time champ was in solid form today disposing of his foe 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 while hitting 10 aces, 42 winners against only 10 errors, making 19 of 23 net approaches, and connecting on 71% of his first serve deliveries. Nice moves.

Fed also debuted the gear I previewed last week but it’s what was covering those duds that made the story. He came out working a military style jacket featuring patch pockets on the front and white warm up pants while underneath he wore a sneaky white vest with gold piping.

Good thing for the RF’s every-friggin-where or he might have been mistaken for staff at The All England Club. Phew.

All in all, it’s very “Fed at Wimbledon” though the military themed jacket paired with a tailored vest is a strange combo.

Rich Rodriguez writes the tennis blog Down the Line!

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There will be no asterisk behind Federer’s first French Open title, which ties him with Pete Sampras as the only two men to win 14 career majors. Federer’s nemesis Rafael Nadal was not facing him in the final, but that was because Nadal was beaten earlier by Soderling. So while Federer caught a break in avoiding Nadal, he easily dispatched the player who dumped Nadal. Now the debate has shifted to the GOAT and whether Federer can claim that crown. Sampras says yes.

“Now that he’s won in Paris, I think it just more solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game, in my opinion,” Sampras said. “I’m a huge [Rod] Laver fan, and he had a few years in there where he didn’t have an opportunity to win majors. But you can’t compare the eras. And in this era, the competition is much more fierce than Rod’s.”

I say there’s no way to ever determine the greatest when one is talking about athletes from different eras. Laver won two Grand Slams and 11 majors and was barred (due to archaic rules) from playing in these majors for five years at the height of his abilities.

One also must consider different equipment and the skill levels of contemporaries when making such equations. How would a Federer have fared against a Jimmy Connors or Bjorn Borg in their prime, or a Laver on clay against Nadal? These are nice fan discussions to have, but ultimately unanswerable.

As for the brief ruckus, a fan carrying a Barcelona soccer banner ran onto the court (photos here) and tried to place a red hat on Federer. He was eventually tackled by security and hauled away. Fortunately, his intrusion did not affect the match.

My question: Is Federer the GOAT? If not, why not?

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Roger Federer (right) nearly blew his chance at his first French Open title a day after Nadal lost, but he rallied from a 2-set deficit to advance to the quarterfinals.

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