Roger Federer is the best player in the history of tennis, believes Rafael Nadal’s lifelong cpach and uncle Toni Nadal. Toni’s comments discard claims by various Spanish media that the 14 time Grand Slam winning Spaniard is the greatest player of all time.
Federer, who holds 17 Grand Slam titles to his name, recently added the Davis Cup title to his resume as well which only has a singles gold from the Olympic Games missing.
Toni said that he thinks Federer is the best of all time, at least the numbers say so. He went on to add that Federer, alongside Rod Laver, is the greatest player in the history of tennis.
Nadal has consistently had the upper hand in the rivalry between the two throughout their careers, and has a record of 23-10 against the Swiss Master. But the Muscles from Mallorca hasn’t beaten the 33 year old in a Grand Slam final since his unbelievable come from behind in the final of Wimbledon 2007.
And according to Toni, he doesn’t know why that is, adding that Federer’s game has never affected his nephew at all. However, he added that one is best for the titles that they win and Federer has three more Grand Slam titles to his name than Nadal; Federer has also sat at the top of the world rankings for five years compared to Spaniard’s three.
And this makes Federer the best player in the history of tennis, Toni believes.
He also mentioned that the current world number one Novak Djokovic is not too far away either. Although he couldn’t say whether he is better or worse than Nadal, he did say he is closer to the level of Federer and he is still young enough to carve out a legacy for himself in the future.