Leaving his dominance aside for a minute… Roger Federer has now won seven grand slams. And he’s still getting nervous before his matches, and he’s still crying when he wins them. It all still moves him, he doesn’t take his success for granted, and I think that’s a cool, cool thing. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of another athlete who has achieved similar dominance who was still displaying such emotion at that point in his career.

So he’s halfway to Pete Sampras’s record of 14 slam titles, and he got there at the same age Pete did. And you know, I’m no Mary Carillo, but it seems like Federer doesn’t have the same quality of competition that Sampras had. Maybe the fields are deeper now throughout the entire field, but there’s not the same level of competition at the top. It won’t be as hard for him as it was for Sampras. Depending on his health, it almost seems like 8 more majors should be a lock for the guy.