Roger Federer Hars Greatest Sports Streak Of All Times

SBR Lou · 07-02-12, 11:05 AM

A warrior. His body has also remained consistent, unlike others even in the sport of tennis.

SlickFazzer · 07-02-12, 11:05 AM

Very strong athalete.

Chi_archie · 07-02-12, 11:06 AM

greatest streak in sports history? yeah I guess an argument can be made.

how bout this streak

longest streak of no-hitters by a pitcher

2 Johnny Vandermeer

MUHerd37 · 07-02-12, 11:10 AM

Been over 8 years since he hasn't made it to the qf. It's insane. No mental hiccups and his body hasn't broken down.

Irish Jet · 07-02-12, 11:13 AM

It's incredible, but I wouldn't say greatest, perhaps the most impressive. I wouldn't consider it as the greatest because getting to a quarter final individually isn't too much of an accomplishment, you're not winning anything.

gregm · 07-02-12, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by SBR Lou

A warrior. His body has also remained consistent, unlike others even in the sport of tennis.

Fed has so many records but one that stands out is that he has never retired in a match. Never. You hear so much about Nadal being a warrior but he has 7 retirements. Feds numbers are like Favres record of 297 consecutive starts , I just dont see that record being broken in an age where there is so much money involved and players just arent going to take chances with their career.

Fed is just so calm people think of him like a sampras type champion but he really has been the toughest player to ever play the game in my opinion

EaglesPhan36 · 07-02-12, 11:15 AM

Vandermeer is the best back-2-back performance, but that's no comparison to a streak that has lasted over eight years on three different surfaces. People don't really appreciate Federer enough, I think. So much talk about what he isn't now versus his younger self, but even @ 30 - the guy is an outstanding player.

jjgold · 07-02-12, 11:16 AM

I know many great streaks in sports but this goes so long and he had to beat so many players on different surfaces the last 8 years
Injuries could come into play, all types of weather, massive traveling , ect

horja1 · 07-02-12, 11:18 AM

Originally posted by SBR Lou

A warrior. His body has also remained consistent, unlike others even in the sport of tennis.

Watched his match against Benneteau ... I think he did not sweat at all during that match while Benneteau looked like he was standing in the rain after just one set ...

Originally posted by Chi_archie

greatest streak in sports history? yeah I guess an argument can be made.

how bout this streak

longest streak of no-hitters by a pitcher

2 Johnny Vandermeer

keep in mind that Federer's streak happend during 8 consecutive years of playing tennis

Boner_18 · 07-02-12, 11:22 AM

I think 23 straight GS semi finals was better. Next closest is 10, less than half, by Laver and lendl..

trytrytry · 07-02-12, 11:34 AM

I think 23 straight GS semi finals was better.

totally agree...

BuddyBear · 07-02-12, 11:45 AM

lol back-to-back no hitters being most impressive achievement in sports.....talk about luck. Have you ever seen the box scores for those games? They are among the weakest no hitters you will ever see.

Roger Federer 33 straight grand slam QFs is simply the most amazing individual streak in modern sports...maybe Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak.....but pound for pound I think this is the best given the number of years it has spanned and the level of competition. Nobody even close in tennis. Federer is one of the top 5 greatest athletes in the history of sports, in the same league with Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.

InTheDrink · 07-02-12, 11:49 AM

Originally posted by Boner_18

I think 23 straight GS semi finals was better. Next closest is 10, less than half, by Laver and lendl..

winner

jjgold · 07-02-12, 01:23 PM

Guys you all have no cases

Fed is the winner

BigDeem5 · 07-02-12, 01:28 PM

How about Dimaggio's hit streak? Federer can play blindfolded 90% of the time to reach qtr finals

hels · 07-02-12, 01:35 PM

MMA is becoming or already is a mainstream sport. Anderson Silva's last loss was January 2006; however, he only lost because he was disqualified for an illegal kick. Prior to that he lost December 2004 -- so he's currently in his 8th year of being undefeated (discounting the DQ). That is a 17 fight win streak with the majority of those fights being against the top middleweight fighters in the world! Only 2 of these fights have gone to the judges scorecard and both of those were unanimous.

I have to say Anderson Silva's current streak compares quite well to Fed's 23 straight SFs.

Chi_archie · 07-02-12, 01:36 PM

Ok I concede this argument. it was a stretch of apples and oranges anyways....

I'll have to think about others that ranked up there in terms of long term streaks of achievement over years......

hmmmm, what if someone played like Every game of every season for multiple years?

shari91 · 07-02-12, 01:42 PM

Fed is by far the winner - even if someone doesn't follow tennis that much, surely they'd understand the significance of what he's achieved. Tennis players are out there alone. No one to play defence for him (ie in the case of a pitcher), no one to coach him, no team mates to rely on if he's nursing an injury.

The guy holds 50+ records in Grand Slams. And then you think of him + Nadal... this was his main competitor and he still managed to achieve those records. Both of them are absolute legends of the sport:

From 2003 Wimbledon – 2011 French Open, Federer and Nadal have won an unprecedented 26 out of 32 Grand Slam titles (excluding 2003 USO, 2004 FO, 2005 AO, 2008 AO, 2009 USO and 2011 AO). They have been represented in all but 5 finals (2003 USO, 2004 FO, 2005 AO, 2008 AO and 2011 AO).
Either Federer or Nadal has been seeded No. 1 for 30 consecutive Grand Slams (2004 FO – 2011 Wim).
From 2004 – 2010, Federer and Nadal have won at least 3 out of 4 Grand Slam titles for 7 consecutive seasons.
Federer and Nadal are the only No. 1 and 2 pair in the open era to contest the French Open and Wimbledon men's finals back to back in a calendar year. They are also the only pair in the history of tennis to contest both of these finals back to back for three consecutive years (2006–08).
In the history of tennis, Federer and Nadal are the first pair to face each other in eight Grand Slam singles finals in the span of 6 years
They are also the first pair in the open era to have faced each in 4 French Open finals (2006-8 and 2011) and the second of three pairs in the open era to have faced each other in 3 Wimbledon finals; Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg (1988-90), Federer and Nadal (2006-8) and Federer and Roddick (2004-5, 2009). As a result Roger Federer is the only man to have faced two opponents three times in the Wimbledon finals.
During the open era, only two pairs of players have played each other in the final of the same Grand Slam singles tournament three consecutive years: Becker-Edberg (Wimbledon 1988–90) and Federer-Nadal (2006–08 French Open and 2006–08 Wimbledon).
Federer and Nadal are the only No. 1 and 2 pair to win at least 11 consecutive Grand Slam singles tournaments between them. In this period, Federer won 3 consecutive titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open and 2 consecutive titles at the Australian Open, while Nadal won 3 consecutive French Open titles
Federer and Nadal are the only pair to win at least four consecutive finals at three different Grand Slams during the same period (2005–08 French Open for Nadal, 2003–07 Wimbledon and 2004–08 US Open for Federer).
From 2008 French Open to 2010 US Open, the pair won 10 of 11 Grand Slams (except 2009 US Open).

shari91 · 07-02-12, 01:44 PM

And then you throw in Djokovic:

From the 2005 French Open to 2012 French Open, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have won 28 out of 29 Grand Slams and have been represented in all 29 finals (2009 US Open won by Del Potro over Federer).
They have won 7 consecutive AOs (2006–12).
They have won 9 consecutive Wimbledons (2003–11).
From 2004 to 2011, they have won seven out of total eight US Opens (except 2009 US Open won by Del Potro)
From 2004 to 2011, Federer (2004, 2006–07), Nadal (2010) and Djokovic (2011) have won three Grand Slams in a calender year five times during a span of 8 years. They have all reached the final of each Grand Slam once but Federer is the only one of the three to reach the final of each Grand Slam in a calender year and has done this three times (2006-7, 2009).

t-wizzle · 07-02-12, 01:46 PM

Really hope Federer wins it. Can not stand Djokovic and would like to see Feds get one more Wimbledon.

shari91 · 07-02-12, 01:52 PM

Originally posted by t-wizzle

Really hope Federer wins it. Can not stand Djokovic and would like to see Feds get one more Wimbledon.

I'd love to see him win too but I'm not sure if he can do it. With Nadal out though I think this is his best chance to get one more Slam.

Looking at those records I posted - and that was only some of them and I skipped his individual ones as I didn't think anyone wanted to read more than 50 - I can only wonder if someone like Andy Murray is praying for the day Fed retires. He'd still have to face Djoko and Nadal obviously but at least with one gone, he has a bit of a better chance. It's just been utter domination by those guys for how many years now.

t-wizzle · 07-02-12, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by shari91

I'd love to see him win too but I'm not sure if he can do it.

Looking at those records I posted - and that was only some of them and I skipped his individual ones as I didn't think anyone wanted to read more than 50 - I can only wonder if someone like Andy Murray is praying for the day Fed retires. He'd still have to face Djoko and Nadal obviously but at least with one gone, he has a bit of a better chance. It's just been utter domination by those guys for how many years now.

They are in a whole different class. If there were only two then occasionally you would maybe see a guy like Murray sneak in a Grand Slam win but two of the three are a lock to make every single GS final the last few years. This is the best shot for an underdog with Nadal out, Joker maybe not quite as sharp as last year, and an aging Federer.

trytrytry · 07-02-12, 02:20 PM

Murray will win it this year however..book it.

Monitor-Tan · 07-02-12, 02:22 PM

I'm going to go with Cal Ripken's Iron Man streak as the greatest..

milwaukee mike · 07-02-12, 02:23 PM

michael jordan won 6 straight championships (other than his 2 year suspension) for christ's sake

you're saying a 8 year streak of making the quarter finals in a sport with only a few elite athletes is more impressive than a 6 year streak of winning championships against 29 other teams?

milwaukee mike · 07-02-12, 02:27 PM

this would be similar if jordan's bulls team played a high school team in the first 3 rounds of the playoffs every year as a -5700 favorite

Boner_18 · 07-02-12, 02:30 PM

Originally posted by trytrytry

Murray will win it this year however..book it.

You wanna book it at -500? Ill ship ya 750 to win 150 pts that he doesnt.

milwaukee mike · 07-02-12, 02:32 PM

and tennis is dominated by a couple of people for long stretches, chris evert reached the semifinals in 34 straight grand slams, so to say nothing is even close or comparable is complete bullshit

you would rather reach 33 straight quarterfinals or 34 straight semifinals?

isn't even the greatest record in tennis, let alone sports

allin1 · 07-02-12, 02:58 PM

It's either he had a facelift or he is on drugs. While others look like they are shitting their pants when they hit the ball, he looks like a zen dude with serenity all over his forehead. I was actually thinking of putting something on him to win wimbledon. He is too cool.

shari91 · 07-02-12, 03:08 PM

Originally posted by milwaukee mike

and tennis is dominated by a couple of people for long stretches, chris evert reached the semifinals in 34 straight grand slams, so to say nothing is even close or comparable is complete bullshit

you would rather reach 33 straight quarterfinals or 34 straight semifinals?

isn't even the greatest record in tennis, let alone sports

Ok - here we go... including men and women.

Federer holds the open-era record for most consecutive US Open titles at five (2004–08).

Federer (2006 AO, Wim and USO) is the only player to defend successfully all three Grand Slams the following year one time in his career (2007 AO, Wim and USO). The remaining three players (Laver, Connors, and Wilander), who won 3 or more Grand Slams in a calendar year before Federer, failed to defend even one Grand Slam next year in their career. Nadal, who won 3 Grand Slams in 2010 (FO, Wim and USO), could only defend one Grand Slam in 2011 (FO).

Only Federer (six Wimbledons and five US Opens), Sampras (seven Wimbledons and five US Opens) and Borg (six French Opens and five Wimbledons) have won two different Grand Slam tournaments at least five times

Only Federer (2006–07 Australian Open, 2003–07 Wimbledon and 2004–08 US Open) and Lendl (1989–90 Australian Open, 1986–87 French Open, 1985–87 US Open) have won three different Grand Slam tournaments at least two consecutive times each.

Federer is the only player to win at least one bagel set in three different Grand Slam finals (2004 US Open, 2006 Australian Open and 2006 Wimbledon). Federer is the only player to win two bagel sets in a Grand Slam final (2004 US Open).

Federer (2003–10) now ties with Sampras (1993–2000), Borg (1974–81) and Nadal (2005-ongoing) for winning at least one grand slam per year for eight consecutive years.

Federer is the only player to win each of the four Grand Slam championship finals in straight sets.

Federer has reached an all-time record 18 finals out of 19 Grand Slam tournaments (2005 Wimbledon – 2010 Australian Open, excluding the 2008 Aussie Open and won twelve of these. During this streak, Federer was never runner up in 3 consecutive finals and lost 2 consecutive finals only once.

Only Federer (7 Wim & 6 USO finals), Borg (6 FO & 6 Wim finals) and Sampras (7 Wim & 8 USO finals) have appeared in 6 or more finals of two different Grand Slams.

Federer is the first player to reach at least seven consecutive semifinals in three Grand Slams events (2004–12 AO, 2003–09 Wimbledon and 2004–11 US Open).

Federer has reached 37 quarterfinals in Grand Slam tournaments, surpassing Andre Agassi's 36 and second only to Jimmy Connors (with 41 quarter final appearances).

Federer also has the record of reaching the quarterfinals or better in 33 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. This record is ongoing.

Federer is the only player to win 40 consecutive matches at two different Grand Slams (2003–08 Wimbledon and 2004–09 US Open). He is also the only player to win 19 consecutive matches at three different Grand Slams (2006–08 Australian Open).

With his defeat of Wawrinka in the 4th round of the 2010 French Open he became the first person to win at least eleven consecutive matches at each of the four Grand Slams.

Federer has the record of most wins achieved at each Grand Slam with 54, surpassing the earlier record held by Lendl with 48 wins.

Until losing the World No. 1 ranking to Nadal on August 18, 2008, Federer was the top ranked player for a record 237 consecutive weeks, surpassing the previous record of 160 consecutive weeks held by Connors. 237 consecutive weeks is the record for both males and females surpassing the previous record of 186 consecutive weeks held by Steffi Graf.

Federer is the first player to finish the year as a top two player in the world for eight consecutive years (2003–10)

Federer is the first player, male or female, to rank No. 1 for 285 weeks in total in only two periods.

From 2003–08, Federer won an all-time record 65 consecutive matches on grass courts before losing to Nadal in the 2008 Wimbledon final.He was extended to five sets only twice during this streak and lost a total of 16 sets (170–16).From 2005–06, Federer won a record 56 consecutive matches on hard courts before losing to Nadal in the 2006 Dubai final.

Federer won a record 26 consecutive matches against top ten ranked opponents. The streak lasted for 16 months (October 2003 – January 2005), when he lost to Safin in a semifinal of the Aussie Open.

Federer won an all-time record 41 consecutive matches against American players before losing to Fish in a semifinal in Indian Wells, California in 2008. This streak began against James Blake at the 2003 US Open lasted for 55 months

Federer holds the record for most consecutive singles wins in North America, winning 55 straight matches before losing to Andy Murray in August 2006. (This loss also stopped Federer's streak of 17 consecutive finals reached, just one shy of Lendl's record 18 consecutive finals in 1981 and 1982.

Federer is the only player in the open era to hold seven winning streaks of twenty matches or more. Federer's first streak was 23 matches in mid-2004. The second streak was 26 matches spanning the latter half of 2004 and early 2005. The third streak was 25 matches in early 2005. The fourth streak was 35 matches at the end of 2005. The fifth (and longest) streak started at the 2006 US Open and ended after 41 victories on March 11, 2007. The seventh (most recent) streak was 24 and included titles in Basel, Paris, and the World Tour Finals in 2011 as well as matches won in Doha and ended when he lost to Nadal in semifinals of the Australian Open 2012.

Federer won 24 straight finals from the tournament in Vienna in October 2003 through the tournament in Bangkok in September 2005. This streak was a new open era record.

Federer won four consecutive titles at one event for the first time on June 18, 2006, at the Gerry Weber Open. He repeated this feat by winning his fourth consecutive Wimbledon championship in 2006, beating Nadal in the final. He improved upon this by winning his fifth consecutive Wimbledon championship in 2007, again beating Rafael Nadal in the final and thus equalling Björn Borg's open era record. Furthermore, in 2007, Federer won his fourth consecutive US Open, breaking the open era record. In 2008, Federer won the US Open for the fifth consecutive time.

Federer has won an open era record 11 grasscourt titles.

Federer has won an all-time record 51 hardcourt titles. Federer is the only player to win 50 titles on a particular surface.

Federer is the only player to win at least ten titles each on clay, grass, outdoor hardcourts, and indoor hardcourts in the open era.

Federer is the only player to win 6 different tournaments at least 5 times each.

Federer is the only player to win tournaments on four different continents in three different seasons (2004, 2006 and 2007).

Federer has won singles tournaments in an open era record 18 different countries.

Federer has the highest career winning percentage in tiebreaks since the introduction of the tiebreak - 66.1% (at the end of the 2011 season)

shari91 · 07-02-12, 03:12 PM

And my disclaimer is that my favourite sportspeople of all time are Roger Maris, Gretzky, Jordan and Gordie Howe.

But they never achieved what Fed did. Take away the fact that tennis is an individual sport so there isn't a Pippen there to feed you the ball, no Phil Jackson to coach you every 2 minutes, no taking timeouts when the game gets rough or to try to re-route strategy. No fielders to catch your shonky pitch and no defence men to clear people out of your way. Show me someone else in an individual sport who has accomplished and dominated as Fed has and I'll agree with you. Guy has NEVER RETIRED in a match. That in itself is unbelievable. Especially when you consider his main competitors for how long will also eventually rank up there as the best players of all time (obviously Nadal's already there).

milwaukee mike · 07-02-12, 03:18 PM

shari that's all well and good but tennis is always dominated by one or two men/women

sampras was 40-2 on center court at wimbledon

nadal made 23 out of 25 quarter finals or better

navratilova won a grand slam title 17 straight years

and on and on and on

i'll take the celtics 8 titles in a row, jordan's 6, uconn women 90 game win streak, dimaggio 56 straight games, gretzky 30 straight, or a hundred others before this federer streak of quarterfinals

milwaukee mike · 07-02-12, 03:23 PM

reaching the quarterfinals does not define greatness, in a sport where he's a 100-1 favorite in a lot of those matches

federer has had a great career but to say he has dominated the sport more than someone like tiger woods or michael jordan is completely laughable, he had no competition except mediocre players like andy roddick or lleyton hewitt

shari91 · 07-02-12, 03:34 PM

Originally posted by milwaukee mike

reaching the quarterfinals does not define greatness, in a sport where he's a 100-1 favorite in a lot of those matches

federer has had a great career but to say he has dominated the sport more than someone like tiger woods or michael jordan is completely laughable

I'm not talking about the quarterfinal record. To me that's just another one to notch on his belt along with all the records he holds. I'm assuming jj heard it mentioned on a broadcast today so that's why this thread was started. But I also can't say that someone like Jordan playing in a team sport with a team and coach behind him or Tiger with Steve Williams (who was great but never achieved the dominance Fed did for that many years) can compare to what Fed has achieved.

It's funny because I was youtube'ing oncourt tennis injuries tonight during a rain delay. Petko getting her ankle stuck on clay and now being out for however many months, Serena messing up her ankle again in Brissie but refusing to retire and beating Jovanoski are two that stick out. These aren't players walking around a golf course or playing badminton. For me to believe it's a true comparison I want someone in an individual sport that is actually 100% physical for sustained hours on end with no coaching and no teammates. Not take a shot, walk, ask your caddie for advice. I'm not a Fed fangirl so I'd be happy to be proven wrong but I can't think of anyone not playing in a team sport who can match him.