Ah, the great Tiger Woods vs Roger Federer debate continues. Muttblog suggests most scribblers taking part in this Slam-Fest plump for Woods as, comparatively speaking, the greater of the two. He highlights this Steve Sailor post which makes some salient points.
The fact that each sport contains four majors each year allows for superficial but misleading comparisons. Take this Michael Wilbon column for instance:
Excuse me, but Roger Federer’s recent stretch of dominance, impressive by any historical standard for tennis, doesn’t come close to Tiger’s. Winning a tennis tournament requires beating six opponents, not the field. Tiger doesn’t ever have the luxury of having another opponent take out, say, Mickelson and Sergio Garcia. It’s up to Tiger alone.
This isn’t bad, but it misses the point. It is, in fact, possible to measure Woods against Federer in as close to a like-for-like comparison as we are likely to find.
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