So this month's Sports Illustrated has a fairly long article about the French Open. Essentially, it presents the best players of Tennis through the history of the sport and makes a good case for Roger Federer, but mentions 4 or 5 times that Rafael Nadal may not agree, or other forms of Nadal being better for whatever reason (13-7 Record over Federer, a few embarassing matches for Federer? Well, draw your own conclusions, but I think it's important to mention the players have beaten eachother on different occasions)

It's easy to say Federer is better than past players, specifically Laver and Sampra, but I'm guessing it may be because they aren't around to argue. Looking at the numbers Federer beats them but as the SI article points out the conditions were much different. Courts were made differently, rackets, shoes, you know, basically everything. It was back in the day before the explosion of performance enhancing drugs too, not that I think any of the players take steroids persay, but the advancements of protein powders and other legal substances definitely demarcate new and old. If you go back to the numbers Federer beats Nadal as well, but that was my point about Laver and Sampra, how do you measure the best player by numbers?

Oh, and on a lighter note a deranged, balding man rushed the court in an attempt to give Federer, wait for it, a hat and a flag. His generosity was reciprocated by three guys man handling him. One had a painful hold on the mans forearm, another had the end of one leg, and the third was attempting to pull the man in for a hug as they literally carried him out. Clearly, the fan thought that the flag would really come in handy during the match. And it wasn't like the small memorial day size flag. It was big. Obviously, the idiot hadn't thought this through. I mean really, if you're a fan of an athlete at least bring him something useful. Or, rather, leave him alone. Anyways, the photo is hilarious but I unfortunately cannot can't find a digital version.

Photo from Sportsillustrated.com