On The Sports Reporters yesterday morning, Mitch Albom mentioned Raphael Nadal’s win at the French a couple of weeks ago over Roger Federer, and Nadal’s dominance of Federer, and everyone else, on clay. Nadal has now won three consecutive French titles. He then spoke of Wimbledon, where, of course, Federer has dominated in recent years, having won four in a row. The last person to win five in a row - which Federer will be attempting to do starting today - was Bjorn Borg (76-80).

Albom speculated that for Nadal (and probably anyone else for that matter), the only thing worse than seeing grass under your feet is seeing Federer on the other side of the net. Federer is already considered by many to be the greatest men’s tennis player of all time. They believe that, by the end of his career, there will be no doubt. And, they very well may be right. Despite has failure thus far to win the French (and it will only get more difficult with each passing year), he already has ten grand slam titles - only four behind Pete Sampras’ record fourteen, and at 25 years old, he still has a pretty good chance at passing Pete. Pete, by the way, is also considered by some to be the greatest ever, and he never won the French, either.

Regardless of his place in history, I think Federer still has at least one more Wimbledon in him, and I think after falling to Nadal again at the French, he will come back strong on his best surface and get number five this year.