Federer can end debate next spring in Paris

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Roger Federer can solve this whole problem quite easily. He can win next year's French Open, rub some red clay into his face for good measure, then soak up worldwide proclamations that he is the greatest tennis player of all time.It probably won't be that easy, not as long as Rafael Nadal is around. But when it comes to the greatest-ever debate, it doesn't take long to call roll.There's Rod Laver, a player without even the hint of weakness and twice winner of the Grand Slam (1962 and '69), a feat now believed to require superhuman powers. There's Pete Sampras, who owns the career record of 14 major titles. And there is Federer, with his 13 majors and the only man to have five-tournament winning streaks at two Grand Slam events -- Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, the ones that really count.You'll hear the occasional vote for Pancho Gonzalez, Don Budge, Jack Kramer or Ellsworth Vines, perhaps a few for Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe or Lew Hoad. There's no concrete answer, in truth, nothing quite as convincing as Willie Mays as your center fielder, Jerry Rice as your wide receiver or Edwin Moses as your 400-meter hurdler. In the wake of the U.S. Open, though, it seems that the rejuvenated Federer effectively can end all arguments next year.If he wins the French, he'll be among the very few players to have won all four majors (Borg didn't win the U.S. Open, and the list of French Open casualties includes McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Sampras, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, John Newcombe and Bill Tilden). The prospect of his winning two more majors next year -- especially the U.S. Open, where he completely overwhelmed Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray -- is entirely feasible."It's tough to say someone is outright the best player of all time," Murray said after Monday's final. "Sampras was obviously great, but I was watching a telecast of one of Federer's matches last week, and when they start showing his records, like being in at least the semis of 18 straight majors, you realize that in the big tournaments, he's always there. Even at the French, he's always in the final. He's definitely a better clay-court player than Sampras, and he's been up against probably the greatest clay-court player of all time in Nadal. So I think there's a very strong argument in his favor."And for the record, Federer's U.S. Open victory represented the 18th straight men's major won by a European. The streak goes back to the 2004 French Open victory by Gaston Gaudio of Argentina. Andy Roddick's 2003 U.S. Open title was the last major victory by an American.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)