Robin Soderling | Ginn & Topics

13-year-old Ben Jorgensen gets Roger Federer to list his favorites of his 18 Grand Slam singles titles

Posted on March 13, 2017 by ginnandtopics

By Leighton Ginn

Sometimes it takes asking a questions others wouldn’t where you will get an interesting and unexpected answer.

On Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open, Ben Jorgensen, a 13-year-old from Rancho Palos Verdes, asked Roger Federer if his Australian Open title, a record 18th Grand Slam championship, was his most special.

When it comes to comparison questions, players usually try to dance around it and not really answer the question. That wasn’t the case Sunday.

Federer ranked his victory over Rafael Nadal in February as one of his top five. And he listed other titles with out prodding.

“I don’t know if it beats my first one, because the first one, it was a dream come true, so that maybe beats everything,” Federer said of his straight sets win over Mark Philippoussis in the 2003 Wimbledon final.

“French Open, I chased that one. And then when it did happen, it was unbelievable what it meant to me and the support I got in Paris,” Federer said of beating Robin Soderling in 2009 for his only French Open title.

“I don’t know. Winning at the US Open against (Andre) Agassi, one of my big and best performance potentially, winning in that atmosphere, under that pressure, being World No. 1 and defending against him, who maybe people thought he was going to retire if he won,” Federer said of his 2005 title, which was his sixth.

“This one now after the comeback and the injury, it was by far the biggest surprise. It was more surprising than, say, my first one in ’03. But, yeah, every one is special. This one is right up there,” Federer said of his Australian Open title.

Jorgensen said he and his mother Christine were spending the day in Indian Wells, and he was at the Tennis Garden for 14 hours watching matches and asking questions in the press conferences all day.

Am I the only one surprised at the lack of hype over Novak Djokovic’s possible Nole Slam?

Posted on May 13, 2016 by ginnandtopics

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By Leighton Ginn

With Novak Djokovic’s impressive semifinal victory over Rafael Nadal, it’s becoming more and more clear that Nole’s chance of completing the first Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 47 years is a real possibility.

It was during the BNP Paribas Open when it struck me that no one was asking Djokovic about the Nole Slam. He came into Indian Wells, Calif., as the reigning champion of Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australian Open. Djokovic has been to the finals of the past five Grand Slam events.

The French Open will be the final piece to the puzzle for a career Grand Slam as well as a year-round Grand Slam, where he holds all four major titles.

But Roger Federer and Nadal have also been winners of three consecutive majors only to fall short.

Federer won three consecutive majors in 2005-06 and 2006-07, but lost to Nadal both times in the French Open finals to deny him the Grand Slam.

In 2010, Nadal won the French, Wimbledon and US Open, but fell in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open to David Ferrer, where he suffered an apparent hamstring injury.

Unlike Nadal and Federer, Djokovic has a gaping hole in his resume in that he’s never won the French Open.

To get to the French Open title, he would have to get past Nadal, who has won Roland Garros a record nine times. Last year, Djokovic beat Nadal to end his 39-match winning streak on the red clay. Only Djokovic and Robin Soderling have beaten Nadal at Roland Garros.

This year, Nadal is playing much better, and you have to imagine the incentive of winning a unprecidented 10th French Open title will be a huge incentive.

But if Djokovic wins the French Open title, not only will he complete his major collection, but he will be able to accomplish something that Federer and Nadal haven’t with the four consecutive majors.

Currently, Djokovic has 11 major titles and the French would be his 12th to tie with Roy Emerson, and trailing only Federer (16), Nadal (14) and Sampras (14).

But the victory would firmly entrench Djokovic in the arguments of the greatest tennis player ever.