Even though Roger Federer is often written about as the greatest mens tennis player of all time, it’s Rafael Nadal who is the most dominating between the two in head-to-head match-ups. In fact, even though the two men are closely tied to one another as the top players in the sport for the last decade, it’s Nadal who holds a decisive 16-8 advantage in decisions over the course of their career.
Federer, 29, is currently the No. 3 singles player in the world while Nadal is the No 1. However, that ranking was almost lost in this tournament as Novak Djokovic would have become the world’s top-ranked player had he beaten Federer in today’s semi-final match.
Nadal has won both of this year’s match-ups and three of the last four. In fact, going back to 2008, Nadal has won eight of the last ten, including their last match-up in Roland Garros in 2008 — a straight sets victory for Nadal and a nightmare finish at the French Open for Federer that year.
Still Federer is obviously playing well and knows how to win at Roland Garros. In Grand Slam finals, Nadal holds the advantage 5-2, which makes him even more of a favorite heading into Sunday’s final. Federer wasn’t supposed to take out Djovokic, however, and did so quite convincingly. We’ll see whose greatness extends another trophy on Sunday.
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