The others are Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver and Andre Agassi, the American who surprisingly won the title here in 1999 and presented the trophy to Federer on Sunday.

Comparing greatness across tennis eras is complicated because the sport was long divided into the amateur game and the professional game, with professionals unable to compete in the Grand Slam tournaments until the sport went open in 1968.

But with the French Open title now at last in his possession, a strong case can be made for Federer in the inevitable debate over who deserves to be considered the greatest player ever.

Federer has won the Australian Open three times, Wimbledon five times and the United States Open five times. But the French Open had always eluded him thanks mainly to Nadal, who beat him in the semi-finals in 2005 and in the final the last three years.

Greatest ever: Sampras

And Sampras thinks the argument is now over. “What he’s done over the past five years has never, ever been done — and probably will never, ever happen again,” said Sampras. “Regardless if he won there or not, he goes down as the greatest ever. This just confirms it.

“Now that he’s won in Paris, I think it further solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game, in my opinion,” Sampras said. “I’m a huge Laver fan, and he had a few years in there where he didn’t have an opportunity to win majors. But you can’t compare the eras, and in this era, the competition is much more fierce than Rod’s.”