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If anyone requires further convincing that Roger Federer is the greatest player to have graced a tennis court, they should tune into Wimbledon over the coming fortnight when the Swiss wizard will look to end all arguments.
Or, if not, consider this: Federer will enter the grasscourt major having won an astonishing 129 of his past 135 grand slam matches.
Of all the numbers Federer is racking up – not least his record of having equalled Pete Sampras’s 14 grand slam titles with his career-defining French Open triumph this month – none are more mind-blowing than six measly defeats in 20 majors over the past five years.
The 27-year-old’s unprecedented show of consistency and excellence has left even Sampras in awe.
“What he’s done over the past five years has never, ever been done – and probably will never, ever happen again,” the American acknowledged after Federer’s Roland Garros breakthrough.
“Now that Roger has won in Paris, I think it just more solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game, in my opinion.”
Inevitably, the doubters will forever point to the “lost years” of legendary Australian Rod Laver as reason enough not to anoint Federer as the all-time king of the court.
Laver won calendar-year grand slams in 1962 as an amateur and 1969 as a pro but was outlawed from competing on the world tour between 1963-67 until the game turned fully professional in `68.
But while Laver backers wonder how many more than 11 slams the Rockhampton Rocket might have accrued, few recognise that he won “only” one in his first season back in `68 before the stars aligned the following year.
Federer fans could also argue the Artful Roger would right now be riding an unimaginable 20-slam streak if not for illness and one Rafael Nadal Parera, more commonly known as the reigning world No.1.
Five of Federer’s six grand-slam defeats since embarking on his remarkable run in 2005 have come at the hands of Nadal – four at Roland Garros, where the Spaniard was unbeatable until his shock fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling this month – and the other in the longest Wimbledon final in history last year.
Federer’s only other hiccup came in last year’s Australian Open semi-finals against eventual champion Novak Djokovic when he was suffering from glandular fever.
“How do you sort of argue with his numbers? It’s pretty incredible,” says Andre Agassi, the last of only five other men before Federer to complete a grand slam set of the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Open.
Sampras certainly isn’t.
“I’m a huge Laver fan, and he had a few years in there where he didn’t have an opportunity to win majors. But you can’t compare the eras, and in this era, the competition is much more fierce than Rod’s,” he said.
“(The record) looks pretty tough to beat now with 14 majors, and I’m sure he’s going to go on and win a lot more.”
And probably soon, especially with Nadal calling off his Wimbledon title defence because of ongoing knee problems.
In what must send shivers down the spine of his rivals, Federer is 76 from 77 at Wimbledon and the US Open over the past six years but now looms as an even hotter favourite at the All England Club this campaign.
With Nadal out and, as Laver put it, Federer now free-rolling after his French Open success, the Swiss master is odds-on to snare a sixth Wimbledon crown and close to within one of another of Sampras’s benchmark tallies.
“He’s over the biggest hurdle in tennis with the French under his belt,” Laver says.
“Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, great players, never won it. The monkey is off Roger’s back and he’ll play, not with abandon, but with excitement, enjoyment and freedom.
“He’ll be Wimbledon champion again unless someone catches fire like Robin Soderling did against Nadal.”
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