Federer Named Greatest Of All Time By TennisChannel

The Tennis Channel has been heavily promoting their countdown of the 100 Greatest (Tennis Players) Of All Time. The list of the 100 best players (men and women combined) as voted on by a panel of experts, former and current players was run through all this week and my favorite tennis player, Roger Federer, was named #1, or the G.O.A.T.

The Top 10 are:

1. Roger Federer
2. Rod Laver
3. Steffi Graf
4. Martina Navratilova
5. Pete Sampras
6. Rafael Nadal
7. Bjorn Borg
8. Margaret Court
9. Chris Evert
10. Billie Jean King

Serena Williams ended up at #14 and Andre Agassi, the husband of the Greatest Female Player of all Time (Steffi Graf) was placed at #12. Between them was John McEnroe and Serena's sister Venus Williams was at #22, 4 places ahead of Justine Henin at 26.

The full list is available online.

Djokovic Earns Record $12,619,803 In 2011

Novak Djokovic won a record $12.6 million in 2011, as a result of winning 70 ATP tour matches (and losing only 6 times all year) along with 10 titles including 3 majors (2011 Australian Open, 2011 Wimbledon and 2011 U.S. Open) and a record 5 Masters Series shields (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, and Montreal). He beat former World #1 Rafael Nadal in 4 of those 5 Masters series finals, beating Mardy Fish in the other and losing to World #4 Andy Murray in the finals of Cincinnati. He also beat Nadal in two of those major finals, beating Murray in the Australian Open final.

Djokovic's financial haul in 2011 moved him up to #4 on the all-time career list, with career earning of $32.4 million, eclipsing Andre Agassi's $31.1 million. Roger Federer still tops the list with $67.4 million, with Nadal second at $45 million and Pete Sampras now at #3 with $43.2 million. Djokovic's 2011 was the 3rd time in history a player had won more than $10 million in a year, following Federer's $10.13 million in 2007 and Nadal's $10.17 million in 2010.

ATP World Tour Finals 2011: Federer Ends Year 17-0; Wins 6th YEC

As I predicted yesterday, Roger Federer ended his 2011 season like he has 5 times before (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010), winning the very last competitive match of the year in the year-end championship for a record 6th time. This time he defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3 6-7(6) 6-3 in one of the best matches of 2011, winning his 70th title in 100 tour finals. It was his 2nd consecutive tournament final win over Tsonga, and somewhat bizarrely his second match win over Tsonga in the tournament, due to the round-robin nature of the early rounds of the year-end championship.

Federer improved to a 8-3 career head-to-head record over Tsonga, and 6-2 in the astonishing 8 matches the two played this year. He ended the year with a remarkable 17-match winning streak in the indoor hard court season which netted the former #1 (and now #3) 3 titles, in Basel, Paris  and London. He demolished his arch-nemesis Rafael Nadal in straight sets and never even got the opportunity to meet Novak Djokovic at this year's year-end championship due to the Serbian's mental and physical collapse.

Federer's 807th career win places him ahead of Stefan Edberg at #6 on the all-time wins list, behind Andre Agassi at 870. His 6th year-end championship breaks the tie Federer had with Ivan Lendl who won his 5 titles with a 39-10 record, Federer's is 39-7, also losing in the final in 2005 to David Nalbandian. He won $1.635 million and cemented his place at #3 in the rankings behind Djokovic and Nadal.

In 2011, Federer was the only player to have match points in two separate occasions against the player of the year in Djokovic (70-6), ending with a relatively pedestrian (by his standards) 64-12 record. Bizarrely, in 2009 Federr's record w 61-12 and he ended the year at #1. In 2010 it was 65-13 and he ended the year at #3.

In 2012, Federer will be playing to win his record 17th major title and his first singles Gold medal at the London Olympics. I wouldn't bet against him!

Federer Wins 800th Tour Match

The Paris Masters tournament is heating up and Roger Federer made history by winning his 800th ATP tour match by defeating Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3 7-5 to reach the semifinals. There he will face Tomas Berdych who ended World #3 Andy Murray 17-match, 3-title winning streak with a thrilling, nail-bitingly close 4-6 7-6(5) 6-4 win.

Federer's 800th win puts him at #7 on the all time list, which is headed by Jimmy Connors at 1,242.

1,242— Jimmy Connors
1,071— Ivan Lendl
923— Guillermo Vilas
875— John McEnroe
870— Andre Agassi
806— Stefan Edberg
800— Roger Federer

Anyone think Rafael Nadal will get to 800 wins? I'm sure one of Federer's goals is to get into the Top 5 on this list, but I think getting past Agassi and McEnroe will be difficult, especially if Federer retires at the end of 2012, which I suspect will happen.

Nadal Loses in Shanghai; Djokovic Clinches #1

Novak Djokovic has clinched the year-end #1 spot for the first time thanks to World #2 Rafael Nadal's shocking loss at the Shanghai Masters in the third round to Florian Mayer. Djokovic has been ranked #1 since July 4, 2011.

The ATP reports:

The 24-year-old Belgrade native is the first Serbian man to finish No. 1 in the history of the ATP Rankings (since 1973). It also marks a record eighth straight year a European is the No. 1 player on the ATP World Tour. For seven years from 1985-91, Europeans finished No. 1.

Djokovic is the first player other than Roger Federer (2004-07, ‘09) or Rafael Nadal (2008, ’10) to finish No. 1 since American Andy Roddick in 2003.

[...]

En route to a 64-3 match record, he has captured a record five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in a season, in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome and Montreal. He has also compiled a 20-2 mark vs. Top 10 opponents, defeating rivals Nadal six times and Federer four times so far in 2011.

Djokovic becomes the 16th person in the history of the ATP rankings to end the year at #1.