Roger Federer won three Grand slam tournaments in 2006. He captured the Australian Open in January, Wimbledon in July, and the U.S. Open in September. He also won three Slams in 2004. He is the only player in the open era to accomplish this feat twice.

Still, many of the comments about Federer seem the stuff of legend; Tall tales worthy of Paul Bunyan , Johnny Appleseed, or Johnny Miller’s descriptions of his final round at the 1973 U.S. Open. I’ve attempted to separate fact from fiction and give a more balanced, reality-based view.

According to tennis great Ion Tiriac, no player in the game's history has been as technically proficient as Roger Federer.

In 2006, Federer won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open for the third consecutive season. He is the only player to have accomplished this feat and he lost only lost two sets (one in each tournament) over the course of 14 matches played in both events.

Federer is not capable of hitting a target on the broad side of a barn with his forehand. Every time he tries, the whole barn falls down.

He lost a total of seven matches last year and only two players defeated him: Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. One of Nadal’s victories occurred in the final of the French Open. It prevented  Federer from capturing his fourth consecutive grand slam tournament, and, as it turns out, stopped him from winning all four Slams in a calendar year. Neither feat has been accomplished since Rod Laver won in 1969.

The worst moment in a professional men's tennis player’s life is not when he finds out Santa Claus does not exist. It’s when he finds out that Roger Federer does.

Federer has now appeared in six consecutive Grand Slam finals. He is the first player to accomplish this feat in the open era and only the second in the history of men’s tennis.

His forehand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.

I first saw Federer play at Wimbledon in 2001. He met seven-time (and four-time defending) champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round. I had heard about Federer, but at that point he was a promising player with a history of inconsistency. Federer defeated Sampras in five close sets. It proved to be the only meeting between the two players.

Someone once tried to tell Federer that his forehand wasn't the best shot in the history of tennis. Many now believe this to represent the worst mistake in the history of mankind.

Speaking of Sampras, he is, in many ways, the primary player against whose career Federer will be measured. Sampras owns the most career Grand Slam titles with 14 as well as the record for most years ranked number one on the ATP Tour (he finished six consecutive years ranked top player in the world).

Both players' talents feature (in Sampras's case, featured) exceptional movement and blistering forehands. The careers of the two players, to this point, contain some eerie parallels. The two are exactly 10 years apart in age; Sampras was born in August 1971 and Federer in August 1981. Sampras turned professional in 1988 while Federer turned pro in 1998. At this point in Sampras’s career, he had eight Grand Slam titles. Federer has nine. In 1997 (2007 for Federer) Sampras captured the Australian Open and Wimbledon to bring his haul to 10. In order to remain ahead of Sampras’ “pace”, Federer must win at least two grand slam tournaments. It would be foolish to bet against his doing just that.

Roger Federer is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a tennis match.

As we look at the 2007 tennis season, the only definite challenger to the Swiss genius's dominance remains Spain’s 20-year-old  Rafael Nadal, a left-hander who owns a winning career head-to-head record against Federer. After defeating Federer in the French Open final (the second consecutive year he defeated Federer in Paris), Nadal made it to last year’s Wimbledon final, losing to the great mafour in 4 sets. Nadal had a disappointing hard-court season, however, and admitted to being both physically and mentally drained at the end of 2006.

So, I hope that was helpful and has given you a better perspective on Roger Federer. Meanhile, there is no truth to the rumour that a Roger Federer clone will be receiving a wild-card entry to the 2007 Wimbledon championships. Physicists determined in late 2005 that that much brilliance on one tennis court could cause irreparable damage to the fabric of space and time.

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