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Sports · The rivalry · Take No. 022

Federer or Nadal?

The most beautiful player in tennis history against the most relentless, with forty matches between them and the sport split down the middle. (Yes, we know about Djokovic. That's a different debate.)

The case for each side, then the verdict. Then the floor is yours.
The case for

Rafael Nadal

Mallorca · 22 Grand Slams · 2001–2024

  • 22Grand Slam titles, two more than Federer, including every slam at least twice.
  • 24–16Head-to-head against Federer. Ten of those wins came in Grand Slams, and 2008 Wimbledon is the greatest match ever played.
  • 14French Open titles. Nobody has dominated one tournament like it in any sport, ever.
vs
The case for

Roger Federer

Basel · 20 Grand Slams · 1998–2022

  • 237Consecutive weeks at world No. 1, a record that may never fall.
  • 8Wimbledon titles, the most by any man, on the surface the sport was invented for.
  • 0Retirements mid-match in 1,500+ career matches. The most durable, elegant body the game has seen.

Cast your take

——
The verdict

It's Nadal. Federer is how tennis should look; Nadal is who won.

Federer's case is the aesthetic one and it's not shallow: he made the hardest sport look like a glide, he held No. 1 longer than anyone, and his Wimbledon record stands alone. If greatness were a feeling, he'd win.

But greatness in a one-on-one sport has a scoreboard, and Nadal holds it: more slams, a winning record against the man himself, and a fortress at Roland Garros nobody will ever match. Nadal, with the most respect a loser has ever earned.

Disagree? That's what the buttons are for.

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