Rafael Nadal leaves Roger Federer off his list of top 10 greatest athletes ever

Many consider Roger Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time, even ahead of Novak Djokovic, who has surpassed him in several major statistical categories. The Swiss captured 103 ATP titles during his career, which is just shy of Jimmy Connors' record total of 109. Federer's Grand Slam haul includes 20 majors, highlighted by a record eight titles at Wimbledon. He also won 28 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments and six ATP Finals crowns, and added an Olympic gold medal in doubles to his collection. But when Rafael Nadal recently shared his list of the ten greatest athletes ever, Federer was nowhere to be seen. Speaking with Netflix Sports, Nadal left Federer off his list but did include Novak Djokovic, with whom he shared one of tennis's most intense rivalries. Nadal listed his choices as: 'Michael Jordan, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Novak Djokovic, Muhammad Ali, Michael Schumacher, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, [Diego] Maradona and Pele.' Their head-to-head record finished at 31-29 in favour of Djokovic overall. However, Nadal had the edge at Grand Slams by an 11-7 margin. In their final meeting during the 2024 Paris Olympics semifinals, Djokovic came out on top before going on to win the gold medal. Federer often appears third on all-time lists these days, and his head-to-head records against both Nadal and Djokovic reflect that standing. He finished 23-27 behind Djokovic and 16-24 against Nadal, with the latter matchup particularly one-sided during the earlier years of their careers. Before 2015, Nadal was up 23-10 in their head-to-head, consistently coming out on top in most of their encounters. Nadal won six of their first seven meetings, including victories in both of their first two Grand Slam matches. He also put together two separate five-match winning streaks over Federer, one spanning from 2008 to 2009 and another from 2013 to 2014. Towards the latter part of their rivalry, Federer found some success by winning six of their final seven matches before retirement. This article first appeared on HITC and was syndicated with permission.