Yes, it was Roger Federer who was on the receiving end of the congratulations on finals day. Was there ever any doubt? Federer ruled the year with a kind of dominance that no player has ever displayed in the history of the game. The 25-year-old recorded 92 wins to a mere 5 losses, falling to just 2 players over the entire season. Federer failed to reach the final in only one of the tournaments he entered in 2006, when he lost to Andy Murray in Cincinnati coming off a Masters Series title in Toronto. Rafael Nadal handed the Swiss his other 4 losses.
En route to his third Masters Cup trophy, Federer dispatched his Spanish rival in the semi-finals, in what was a cracking performance from both players. In their head-to-head, Federer has now closed a 1-6 gap to 3-6, after having won their previous encounter at Wimbledon.
But it still remains to be seen if Roger can now consistently beat Nadal, similar to the way he turned the tide on negative head-to-heads against Nalbandian, Hewitt and Henman in the past. Nadal is still just 20 years of age, and with 2 Grand Slam titles under his belt, he has achieved more than Federer has at that age. However, the Spaniard has a lot of work to do to improve his game on faster surfaces. Nadal still lets shot-makers like James Blake overpower him, and he will have to find a way to deal with those kind of players if he is to really challenge Federer for the top spot in the rankings.
Overtaking Roger won’t happen any time soon. Sitting at No.1 for a straight 147 weeks at the moment, Federer will surpass Jimmy Connors’ record of 160 weeks on top of the leaderboard in February, even if he doesn’t play a single tournament up until that point.
Federer ended the year with 1674 points in the ATP Race, which is almost twice as much as number 2, Rafael Nadal, who has 894. Also, Federer became the first player to break $ 8.000.000 in prize money in a single season.
So after a really incredible year, can we now say that Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time? At the senior’s event in Houston the week before the Masters Cup, all the players agreed, Roger Federer is an amazing athlete and he will go down as a tennis legend. But, is he the best ever to hold a racket? None of them dared to say so. The general thought among them is that Federer might be a little lucky with the competition he has to deal with in comparison to previous era’s.
“When Tommy Robredo makes the Masters Cup, something’s wrong.” said Ivanisevic. Wayne Ferreira, who beat Federer twice in three meetings, added: “I won't mention any names, but when you see some of the guys at the top and you remember how they played, it's hard to believe they could have improved so much.”
It remains to be seen if Federer will be widely judged as the best player ever one day, but let’s not forget, the Swiss is still work in progress and could really make a case for himself in the “greatest of all time debate” by winning that clay tournament in Paris next year. For now though, it’s time to take a break.
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