The best player of all times has to be the best on all surfaces, against all players

Head-to-head tallies The following is a breakdown of their head-to-head results:[10] Nadal reacts in the finals against Federer at Roland Garros 2007. All matches: Nadal 17–8 All finals: Nadal 13–6 Grand Slam matches: Nadal 7–2 Grand Slam finals: Nadal 6–2 Tennis Masters Cup/ATP World Tour Finals matches: Federer 3–0 Tennis Masters Cup/ATP World Tour Finals finals: Federer 1–0 ATP Masters Series/ATP World Tour Masters 1000 matches: Nadal 9–3 ATP Masters Series/ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals: Nadal 6–3 Best of five set matches: Nadal 9–3 Five set matches: Nadal 3–2 Results on each court surface Clay courts: Nadal 12–2 Hard courts: 4–4 Grass courts: Federer 2–1 Clay Nadal and Federer have played 14 of their 25 matches on clay due to the fact that they have consistently been the best two clay court players since 2005.[51] Nadal has generally dominated on the surface. From 2005–2008, he won every French Open, defeating Federer each time (2005 semi-final and 2006–2008 finals), and won at least 2 of the 3 clay Masters events each year from 2005–2010, defeating Federer in 6 of those. As a result, some analysts and players, such as Pat Cash and Conchita Martínez, already consider Nadal the greatest clay-court player ever.[52] Nadal has won all of their seven meetings in best of five set matches on clay. Hard Federer and Nadal have each won 4 of their 8 matches on hard courts. Federer has been the best hard court player since 2004, winning 9 of the 15 hard court Grand Slams and 5 of the 8 Masters Cups, plus a record at Cincinnati. Nadal has always had solid results on hard courts, winning 9 tournaments since 2005, including five Masters Series. But he has improved considerably over the years, reaching the semifinals of both Grand Slams for the first time in 2008, winning the 2008 Olympics Singles tournament, defeating Federer in the Australian Open final in early 2009, and winning the US Open for the first time in 2010. Despite Nadal's success on hard courts, some analysts have criticized his lack of consistency in reaching tournament finals for skewing the overall head-to-head results. They contend that more hard court encounters, especially in the early years of the rivalry, would likely have resulted in a better winning percentage for Federer.[14][53] Federer has been more successful than Nadal on hard courts because he hits a flatter forehand and has a bigger serve. Hard courts are a fast surface, so Federer's flatter shots result in a lower bouncing, faster moving trajectory. Thus, Nadal's topspin is least effective on hard courts, because it doesn't bounce up as high to Federer's backhand, enabling Federer to return it better. Nadal has improved his serving speed and placement over the years, but Federer still serves faster on average and earns more aces and service winners.[54] Grass As with clay, Federer and Nadal have been the two best players on grass for the last 5 years. Federer has been the preeminent grass player since 2003, winning 5 consecutive Wimbledons from 2003 to 2007. Nadal has steadily improved on grass, playing Federer in three consecutive Wimbledon finals from 2006–2008, with better results each time. Since 2003, Federer and Nadal have swept the Wimbledon title, Federer in 2003-'07, 2009 and Nadal in 2008 & 2010.One of the reasons for Nadal's success is that in recent years Wimbledon management has firmed up their courts to make them more durable. Some say this has created the side-effect that the new courts play slower.[55][56] Still, however, grass is considered the fastest surface. While Nadal is supposedly weaker on faster surfaces, the lack of a true bounce on both clay and grass may be the true secret to why Nadal is better on grass and clay than on hard court. Nadal has won on the very surface at the Olympics (identical to the US Open surface) and he has won the Australian Open (thought to be a slower hard court surface, but still much faster than clay) the US Open (the faster hard courts) and he has won several Masters Series in both the Spring and Summer. The fact that they have played three matches on grass is remarkable considering that the Wimbledon final has been their only opportunity to do so in recent years. The grass season is brief, with only two weeks between the end of the French Open and the beginning of Wimbledon every year. This means that both men play just one other grass tournament, but they have always entered different events. Additionally, from 2006 onwards, both men have entered the Wimbledon draw as the top 2 seeds, meaning that they can only meet in the final each time. Relationship and competitive dynamic Both Federer and Nadal's personal and professional relationship is good-natured and gracious.[57] Though they are both highly competitive, they maintain a healthy regard for each other and have had virtually no source of personal animosity. The lone issue, albeit minor, was Federer's complaint about Nadal's slow, deliberate style of play on the eve of the 2008 Wimbledon final.[58] Despite their cordial relationship, both men have a somewhat different attitude towards their rivalry. When Federer was securely atop the tennis world he was ambivalent towards the notion of a rivalry with an opponent five years younger than himself.[59][60] But after their memorable 2008 Wimbledon final he had no choice but to acknowledge its significance, even admitting "it definitely becomes more and more special the more times we play against each other."[60] A few weeks later, after Nadal had officially surpassed him in the rankings, Federer offered this compliment: "Look at what he had to achieve to get it. That's what I like to see."[61] Nadal has always cherished the rivalry because he looks up to Federer as both a role model and a measuring stick for success.[62][63] When interest in their rivalry increased, however, both Federer and Nadal collaborated to arrange occasional charity exhibition matches to benefit their charities' philanthropic interests. The most recent was the Match for Africa, played on 21 December 2010 in Zurich, Switzerland (Federer won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3) and a follow-up match played in Madrid on the following day, titled "Joining Forces for the Benefit of Children" (Nadal won 7–6 (7–3), 4–6, 6–3). Cultural impact The rivalry has also increased overall interest in tennis. The highly-anticipated 2008 Wimbledon final drew strong television ratings for tennis in both the U.S. and across Europe.[13][64] The match was also featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which was the first time in years that tennis made the cover.[ Skill comparisons “ I am more than happy with my titles, and I think talk about if I am better or worse than Roger is stupid because the titles say he's much better than me, so that's the truth at that moment. I think that will be true all my life.[66] ” Federer has been considered by many to be the greatest tennis player of all time.[67] Some, however, argue that despite Federer's record 16 Grand Slam titles, he should not be considered the greatest ever with an 8-17 record against Nadal. Others analyze the head-to-head matches by surface and conclude that Nadal's edge comes from his 12-2 record against Federer on clay. Federer has achieved the majority of his success on grass (6 Wimbledon titles) and hardcourts (5 US Open titles and 4 Australian Open titles), whereas Nadal has achieved his greatest success on clay (6 French Open titles). It is argued that the fact that the majority of their matches have been on Nadal's most successful surface and Federer's least successful demonstrates that Federer has long been the second best clay court player in the world to Nadal. Nadal is regarded by many as the greatest clay court player of all time. He also has been a member of multiple Spanish Davis Cup teams, which Federer has never accomplished. Both men have an Olympic gold medal - Nadal in singles and Federer in doubles. During interviews, people like fellow player Andy Murray and former player and coach Paul Annacone have called Nadal one of the best tennis players ever.[68] In November 2010, Bjorn Borg said that Federer is the greatest player, but "Rafa has the chance to be the greatest player" if he stays healthy. John McEnroe said, "there is an argument to be made that Rafael Nadal may be the greatest player eventually, even possibly now."[69] In response to a question posed by a journalist at the 2010 French Open regarding whether Nadal is better than Federer, Nadal replied, "I think this person don't know nothing about tennis." The journalist asked why, and Nadal told the journalist, "so you don't know nothing about tennis. You see the titles of him and you see the titles of me? It's no comparison. So that's the answer. Is difficult to compare Roger with me now, because he has 16 Grand Slams; I have 6. Masters 1000, yeah, I have more than him. But for the rest of the things the records of Roger is very, very almost impossible to improve."[70][71] At the press conference following his semi-final win in the 2010 U.S. Open Nadal was asked whether his head-to-head advantage over Federer means he is better. Nadal replied, "Head to head is not an element for me. Is a part of the statistics, but is not the decisive element." Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federer%E2%80%93Nadal_rivalry