Roger 2nd best clay courter of all time - Reed

Mr. Reed, the best tennis reporter of all time feels Roger Federer is the 2nd best clay courter of all time

Mr. Reed quotes as follows

Roger is arguably the second best clay court player of all time. He has got a shot on every surface this season. Roger has to be favorite for Wimbledon.

Seriously the standard of tennis experts and reporters are set to all time high by Mr. Evergreen Reed.

What would be his next article Tiger Woods the 3rd best clay courter of all time? between who is the best clay courter of all time? I guess M Jordon, coz he never lost a Tennis match on clay court , or could it be Usain Bolt, coz Rafa lost an exhibition 100 meter race against him in clay.

Its time players like Borg, Guga, and Brugera lose finals in clay to catch Mr.Reed's attention.

It really is hard to imagine just what possesses Reed to write such stuff. Maybe some weird pathological desire to give yet more ammunition to his ever-growing band of critics...?

The only conceivable explanation (ie. apart from simple ignorance) is that he intended to say "second best clay courter amongst all currently active players." Because, surprising though it might be to some folk, that would be statistically accurate based purely on actual career W/L ratios on clay. On that, Federer is in fact tied with Djokovic (although Fed does still have more clay titles to his name), with only Rafa above them - although by some considerable margin of course !

Either way, there's a whole chasm of difference between "currently active" and "of all time." And missing that difference is surely more about stupidity than some sort of possible typo error. Does Reed really get paid for this ?

This clay season is going to be interesting cause last year, the best clay courter of all time was at his peak but he got thrashed by a slightly younger player, reaching himself his peak.

Though I can understand Reed's point on this occasion (2nd best clay courter OAT), a point many of us made 3 years ago, it remains useless speculation.

It's a shame that Federers extremely high clay standard - long overlooked because of being overshadowed by Nadals, and by his own even greater heights reached on other surfaces - should be further undermined by support from the biggest idiot in tennis journalism.

"Roger is arguably the second best clay court player of all time. He has got a shot on every surface this season. Roger has to be favorite for Wimbledon."

Wow what a sentence...second best clay courter of all time makes him favourite for Wimbledon...
I guess the only difference today between clay and grass is that one is clay and the other is grass!!

bogbrush wrote:It's a shame that Federers extremely high clay standard - long overlooked because of being overshadowed by Nadals, and by his own even greater heights reached on other surfaces - should be further undermined by support from the biggest idiot in tennis journalism.

It makes for good laugh reading the comments though BB, so long live Reed and may he reign as an "expert" for even longer.

I think although Federer has been second best in recent years on the clay of Roland Garros, there has been a very big gap between second best and first best.

Trouble is Nore, Reed is calling Federer the 2nd best OF ALL TIME, which is pretty much the most idiotic thing he could have written.

bogbrush wrote:It's a shame that Federers extremely high clay standard - long overlooked because of being overshadowed by Nadals, and by his own even greater heights reached on other surfaces - should be further undermined by support from the biggest idiot in tennis journalism.

@BB I am still laughing after reading your last statement , Reed has a special talent that is to entertain us effortlessly , may GOD bless his talent. Just like Federer's Natural style of play, Reed has the natural writing abilities and can do it on any sport let alone his favorite past time sport Tennis.

At best, it's a half-understandable theory for the misguided, I suppose; Nadal probably the greatest clay courter of any generation, and Federer one of the few who has beaten him or, at least, pushed him on a few occasions on the red stuff. I can only guess that Reed's going down the route of "Wow, just think, if it weren't for Rafa then Federer would have won five French Open titles!"

The problem is, his theory also works on the assumption that Nadal's level on clay courts is hugely better than Borg's, who similarly triumphed in Paris six times, and that Federer would have trounced Bjorn on the red stuff - and I don't think either is particularly true.

Federer sails in to a clay court top ten, and in fact I'd say he's probably in the top half-dozen. But second greatest of the lot? Reed should really know better.

Federer is a top 10, maybe top 5 all time clay courter... His FO title and runnersups make it so.. his other big titles, the man to stop a couple? of Nadals biggest win streaks on clay------------- but #2 all time is absolutely not true...

Still impressive though- your weakest surface and your still a top all time player on it :-)

TRuffin wrote:Federer is a top 10, maybe top 5 all time clay courter... His FO title and runnersups make it so.. his other big titles, the man to stop a couple? of Nadals biggest win streaks on clay------------- but #2 all time is absolutely not true...

Still impressive though- your weakest surface and your still a top all time player on it :-)

Yea his record on the weakest surface is ultra impressive and that too considering GOAT of clay played on the same generation, but being an analyst he should think all other factors before coming to any conclusion that Fed is the 2nd greatest.

Federer has certainly proved himself to be considered a great claycourter with 5 finals at RG and I win out of those five, plus a couple of Masters?? on clay.

But I think it is a slightly sweeping statement by SR to claim he is the second best of all time - though, of course, he did say arguably

I don't agree with Reed either but just to be devil's advocate, Roger could have had 5 or 6 FO's if not for Nadal as well as numerous masters titles. With such a tally he may well have been considered the second greatest on clay.

Poor Nadal he even gets over shadowed by Roger on clay
No one is talking about the best clay courter,everyone is talking about the second best clay courter

Difficult to imagine how many keyboards have been worn out and how many trees have been felled in the production of the countless number of column inches devoted to a certain R. Federer .......

@lags72

well tennis fans anxiously wait for the day Reed would write a sensible article, it may happen some day.

Reed forgets Muster, Vilas, Borg, Luis-Clerc and many great clay players.

Why does he not peruse the ATP web site before writing his column?

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Reliability-Zone/Reliability-Clay-Career-List.aspx

... because Simon Reed is a tennis troll!!

Hmmmm I think Reed has vaguely overlooked past greats and I think was only thinking in the here and now.

Federer is an exceptional talent on Clay. 5 Roland Garros finals. That in itself stands up without the success of titles. I think when he retires and you look at his stats and you see his Roland Garros record and think it took the greatest Clay court player to stop him.

laverfan wrote:Reed forgets Muster, Vilas, Borg, Luis-Clerc and many great clay players.

Why does he not peruse the ATP web site before writing his column?

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Reliability-Zone/Reliability-Clay-Career-List.aspx

Come on LF, your asking too much of Reed

legendkillarV2 wrote:Hmmmm I think Reed has vaguely overlooked past greats and I think was only thinking in the here and now.

Federer is an exceptional talent on Clay. 5 Roland Garros finals. That in itself stands up without the success of titles. I think when he retires and you look at his stats and you see his Roland Garros record and think it took the greatest Clay court player to stop him.

Yup its the GOAT of clay who stopped him from winning 4 FO titles, but the fact is he just won one GS in clay, in-comparision there are several other champs who have won it 3 times, and there are stars who on their time were invincible on clay eventhough it lasted for few months only.

Its like calling Del Potro the 2nd greatest player of this year as he is stopped by the mighty Fed on almost all occasions.

Too much alcohol on your breakfast there Mr Reed I would advise him to stick with the traditional semi skinned milk. Roger is at best 11th or 12th in clay court talent and even socal would agree with me there!

Josiah Maiestas wrote:Too much alcohol on your breakfast there Mr Reed I would advise him to stick with the traditional semi skinned milk. Roger is at best 11th or 12th in clay court talent and even socal would agree with me there!

@JM , even die hard Federer fans would laugh at that statement of Mr.Reed.

What you think, is it the Born talented to write journals like this or he cultivated it

88Chris05 wrote:... The problem is, his theory also works on the assumption that Nadal's level on clay courts is hugely better than Borg's, who similarly triumphed in Paris six times ...

Indeed, it might be a weak era for clay.

@ NS, which one is weak? Borg's?