Oys bro, :P i welcome your analysis and believe me i don't differ with the most part of it. i have no doubt whatsoever in federer's potential to be ( or to be considered rather :D) the best ever in the game. he certainly looks to be in that league but for that he needs to prove a point or two to the critiques and to himself. his style of play is very robust and complete. be it backhand, forehand, groundstrokes, net volleys or powerful sevice, he plays them all well and with panache. i am also in awe of his tremendous temperament and ability to read the game during play and change gears in his favor. a little blemish to his career so far has been his inability to play consistently well in the clay court. why wimbledon and roland gaross are considered as the most difficult double in tennis? i am sure, if you are a true follower of the game, you should be knowing that the style of play needed in grass court is radically different than that in clay. one has to have a super powerful groundstrokes to succeed in clay court. federer's groundstrokes, although efficient, is not powerful enough to win him clay court tournaments consistently. he still has 3/4 years before he is done with his career. i am hopeful that he proves me and others regarding this-- wrong! :D i also agree that players who succeeds in clay court are of a bit different league. that is exactly why, one needs to have a versatile approach to win games in both surfaces. pete sampras jimmy connors boris becker stefan edburg john mc enroe --all pillars and legends of the game, but no body could win french open. agassi did but just once. he won wimbledon just once as well. the only player that rocked in both the courts is bjorn borg! :D that said, i am not implying, ability to play equally well in both grass and clay is the only litmus test to find out the "best ever" but US or Australian opens are hard courts - conventional default surface in tennis and out of the 61 ATP titles that borg won, i am sure, most were played in hard courts. :-). Samsara, i commend your difference too but i guess, one cannot say, just because it was in an old era, oldies were slower and less competitive than players of today's generation. i tend to agree with you on the "speed" factor that this game has introduced and has achieved over the years, but if just powerful service and ACES were the measures, all great servers with the likes of Goran Ivanisevic, Patrick Rafter or Cedrick Pioline would have dominated the game for a little longer, no? :)