{"id":2714,"date":"2026-08-30T15:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2714"},"modified":"2026-08-30T15:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:00:57","slug":"why-roger-federer-will-always-be-the-goat-in-the-eyes-of-so-many-tennis-aficionados","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2714","title":{"rendered":"Why Roger Federer will always be the GOAT in the eyes of so many tennis aficionados"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plaudits have been flowing Roger Federer<\/a>\u2019s way in recent days as his big night on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open was backed up by his inauguration into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, as he confirmed once again why many will always view him as the ultimate tennis GOAT.<\/p>\n

That statement will instantly spark annoyance in Novak Djokovic fans, who can correctly point to the records their hero has created and suggest he stands alone as the greatest male tennis player of all-time.<\/p>\n

If you rate your greats on pure numbers, Djokovic has four more Grand Slam titles than Federer, he has reigned as world No 1 for longer than his former rival and he has also won more ATP Masters 1000 events than any other player.<\/p>\n

Yet Federer will always hold a unique and special place in the hearts of millions of fans around the world that Djokovic and even Rafael Nadal can never touch.<\/p>\n

At the turn of this century, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick were leading contenders for the biggest prizes in tennis.<\/p>\n

With the era led by Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi coming to a close, the tennis world was in a state of flux as it waited for its next great superstar to arrive.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

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Roger Federer reveals biggest career regret and gives honest answer on potential ATP coaching role<\/a><\/p>\n

Federer had long been hailed as the future, but he was also struggling to make the most of his great talent and turn it into winning consistency in his formative days in the professional ranks.<\/p>\n

Unlike Carlos Alcaraz, Federer\u2019s rise to the top did not come instantly as his first five years in Grand Slam competition saw him fail to get past the quarter-finals in any of the four majors.<\/p>\n

When he finally broke through by winning his first Wimbledon title, the floodgates opened and a period of Federer dominance kicked off.<\/p>\n

In the four years that followed, Federer won a remarkable 11 Grand Slam titles from the 16 he played, as he quickly cemented his status as one of the game\u2019s all-time legends playing a brand of tennis that was impossible to resist.<\/p>\n

The fan base he built up during that initial period of success stuck with him until now and while Rafael Nadal had his fair share of supporters when he halted Federer\u2019s dominance and started winning Grand Slams at a rapid rate himself, there was always a layer of gold placed around the breakthrough out in this era of the \u2018Big 3\u2019.<\/p>\n

As he admitted in his Amazon documentary earlier this month, Novak Djokovic simply didn\u2019t have any more tennis fans to sweep up when he arrived late to this party and this explains why we still see Federer lauded as the ultimate hero of the golden generation of men\u2019s tennis by many of his admirers.<\/p>\n

Everyone admires Nadal\u2019s brilliance on clay courts and Djokovic\u2019s incredible appetite to win and win again, but neither of them touches Federer for global popularity that endures to this day.<\/p>\n

Those who start a movement tend to be revered more than those who join at a later date and while there are strong arguments to suggest Nadal and Djokovic are the ultimate kings of the men\u2019s game, Federer\u2019s grace and majesty give him a glow they have never managed to claim.<\/p>\n

After he was welcomed into the International Tennis Hall of Fame amid emotional scenes on Saturday, those who believe Federer deserves to be recognised as the ultimate champions of the men\u2019s game have had their chance to celebrate the greatness of a hero who will forever be etched into the record books as one of the great \u2013 but is he the greatest?<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Emotional Roger Federer\u2019s \u2018Mirka bit\u2019 as he calls his wife \u2018my Hall of Fame\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Why Roger Federer will always be the GOAT in the eyes of so many tennis aficionados<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plaudits have been flowing Roger Federer\u2019s way in recent days as his big night on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open was backed up by his inauguration into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, as he confirmed once again why many will always view him as the ultimate tennis GOAT. That statement will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}