Federer the Great

Just a mere 12 months ago, Roger Federer left the Centre Court at Wimbledon in tears, having lost his most valuable crown that of Wimbledon Champion to Rafael Nadal. Along with the loss went his world number one ranking and his air of invincibility the media were already beginning to write his sporting obituaries.

Earlier in 2008 he had lost his Australian Open title and had been beaten yet again by Nadal for the third time in the French Open - all he had left was his US Open title and that was under serious threat too.

Twelve months later the situation has reversed and Federer is back on top of the world once more. He duly held on to his US Open title beating Britain's Andy Murray in the final and although he lost an epic final in Australia to Nadal in January, the Swiss superstar has since won the French Open for the first time and he has come back to SW19 and regained his Wimbledon crown - admittedly with Nadal absent.

With these huge prizes Federer is once again number one in the world and by winning Wimbledon has become the first man in history to win fifteen tennis Grand Slams and he is still only 27 years old!

His final against Andy Roddick at Wimbledon broke the final set record (16-14) and will follows the Nadal/Federer final of 2008 and the Borg/McEnroe 1980 classic as one of the greatest finals ever. It was expected that Federer would win he was even odds on to win in straight sets, but Roddick fought him tooth and nail and Federer had to pull out all his vast skills to win the day.

Now holding three Grand Slams, Federer will go to the US Open in September to hopefully retain that title before he takes on Nadal and all other pretenders to his crown in Australia in January with the aim being to have the four Grand Slam titles in his name.

Obviously Nadal will have his own ambitions too but he has a serious knee injury and at this stage it is not sure whether he will be coming back sooner or later. Apart from Murray, he is the only player in the world currently who has a better head to head record against Federer and he will be keen to underline this fact as soon as possible.

Nadal currently has six Grand Slam titles to his name and has age on his side to even surpass Federer's fifteen.

Meanwhile other top players that include Murray, Djokovic, Del Potro, Tsonga nd Roddick must find a way to play their very best tennis in the very biggest tournaments. They should learn that Federer has made the semi final or better of the last 21 Grand Slams a record that not only should remain unsurpassed but is absolute proof that consistency will bring its rewards.

Federer has set a standard that is almost impossible to beat and it is why he will now always be regarded as the greatest player to have ever played the game.