Since You're Going to Do It Anyway, You Might As Well Know the Facts

I'm not sure what the obsession is with tennis fans and ranking the greatest of all time (oft times shortened to the unfortunate acronym "GOAT"), but in the wake of Roger Federer's loss to Rafael Nadal in the French Open Final on Sunday, there's no escaping the argument.  It's everywhere.  And the tide is shifting pro-Nadal. This is incomprehensible to me. (And in the first place, I think the debate itself is silly, designed to drum up conversation points and get people reading about tennis. To begin with, just try defining "greatest" exactly).

At this point, it's boiled down to two people: Federer 'cause he's been so dominant for so long, and Nadal since he always beats Federer. 

Now, you may be tempted to form your own opinions on this and engage in the debate. This is not advised. But if you're going to do it, here's what you need to know to make an informed decision. If my own bias spills through, forgive me.

--Rafael Nadal is 17-8 against Federer all time.

--Of these 25 matches 14 have been on clay. This is a lot of matches, and Nadal is 12-2 against Fed.

--On all other surfaces, Fed leads 6-5.

--They've met in six grand slam finals: 4 French Opens, 3 Wimbledons, and an Australian Open. Nadal has won all of these matches except for 2 Wimbledons (2007 & 2008)

--Rafa has won 10 grand slam singles titles total.

--Roger has won 16.

--Nadal has had one great year (2008) where he won two grand slam singles titles, (Plus the gold medal, but come on.), and one out of this world year (2010) where he won three.

--Roger has won three of the four grand slams in the same year on three separate occasions.

--Federer made 23 (twenty-three!) consecutive Grand Slam semifinals. That's six years worth of major semifinals. He's also made 28 consecutive GS quarters. Both are records, the former a record by a mile.

--Nadal's semi/quarter streaks are not findable with a Google search.

I think that's a good start. Now, since you asked, here's what I take away from the above stats. (Full disclosure: Roger Federer is completely responsible for making me interested in tennis in the first place. He's my favorite player of all time, and watching him play is, I think, as near to watching Michaelangelo's David come to life and hurl a rock at Goliath as we may see in all of sport.) First, Rafael Nadal plays a particular brand of tennis that matches up extremely well against Roger. On top of that, he's really good, and is mentally very tough, and in each of their 25 encounters played very well on big points, including/especially all of Roger's break point opportunities. Also, 14 of their matches were on clay, and this is Rafa's favorite surface, and it highly favors his game. Plus, Nadal is five years younger than Roger and is in the fortunate position of "padding his stats" against the Swiss while they meet up in the descent of Fed's career.

Second, Roger Federer is the most consistently dominant player in the history of tennis. He's also won the most grand slams of any player ever. If somehow you've defined "greatest ever" to mean winning the most slams, or performed the most consistently for the longest time, then fine. He's the greatest. From 2004 to 2007, he could beat everyone badly on any surface except clay. On clay, he could beat everyone badly except one person, Nadal. Conversely, during the same three year stretch Nadal couldn't come close enough to consistently face Roger on any other surface that would have favored Roger and swelled his rivalry win total.

Fed's three year stretch of dominance is unlike anything the sport has seen. And actually, Nadal seems to be in the GOAT discussion less because of his own accomplishments in general, and more because of his favorable match-up with the most consistently dominant player to ever play. Without Roger's brilliant, sustained play Nadal would probably just be in the "good as Agassi/Borg" discussion. (Each of Borg/Agassi/Nadal's accomplish are very comparable.)

I guess my bottom line is this: Let's say (borrowing a very useful scenario from ESPN's Bill Simmons) that Aliens challenge Earth to a tennis match, losing planet's subjugation on the line. (I know, it's very Space Jam). My first question would be what surface is the match on. If it's clay, I'd pick Rafa from 2010. If it's any other surface, I'd choose Roger from 2006 and then laugh all the way to whatever intergalactic bank was brokering the planetary bet.