Is that even true? And why would it matter at all towards what I'm saying? Djokovic and Nadal certainly get a lot more hate than Federer as far as I've seen.
Social media is a poor metric, but it’s all we have, so just feast your eyes on twitter and YouTube comments. My experience is that fans of the other 3 spend more time shittalking Fed than extolling their own. There was a guy here who was Djokovic fan who came out with conspiracies of Fed taking PEDs in 2017, and this place is one of the more benign when it comes to tennis.
Because we all know being a sex symbol makes you more likeable in the eyes of society
Seriously, what is that example? Ronaldo's as divisive as it gets. You're trying to argue against me by giving me an example that perfectly proves my point.
You're turning the greatness of athletes into PR stunts and personality contests instead of how good they are at their sports and what they accomplished. That's ridiculous logic. I guess Djokovic would be be closer to being the greatest tennis player ever if he had a few funny talk show appearances and some charity auctions than if he won the next 5 or 6 Grand Slams then.
And you are intentionally misrepresenting my point. These guys are popular because of their sporting prowess, and how they play the game is an intrinsic part of that. If the majority of people, pundits, coaches, past and present players are either fan or have asserted that Federer is the most skillful/entertaining tennis player they’ve ever seen, then maybe the roots of his popularity lays somewhere else besides ‘being the first tennis superstar after Sampras’ or whatever.
And ‘greatness’, vague as it is, is absolutely a popularity contest. For all we know, Di Stefano might have been the best player in football history, but people remember Pelé and Maradona, and in the near future, Messi/CR.