Two Princes: An In-Depth Look at the Debate Over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Hello to all tennis fans,

Let me introduce myself. I am Guga, a simple tennis fan. I started watching tennis when Sampras and Agassi came up and when Lendl, Edberg, and Becker were still playing great tennis. I started to like both Sampras and Agassi, but more Sampras.

Then came Roger and Rafa. I really like them both, but more Roger. I started to like him more and more in 2008, when he looked more human by losing matches. When people found fault at everything Roger did, it pushed me more towards him.

Let me try to discuss with various topics.

Dominance Over the Years

Below is their winning percentages over the years. I only considered from the year when both gentlemen won their first slams, so that we can say after that they put their games together, after initial years of struggle in the tour.

Year    '03      '04      '05       '06       '07       '08      '09

Rafa     DC      DC      89%     83%     82%     88%    86%

Roger   82%    93%    95%     95%     88%     81%    87%

*DC - Didn't consider

Obviously, the above statistics show that only in '08 Rafa did better than Roger, which was obviously a bad year for Roger and the best year for Rafa. So who dominated more, Rafa or Roger? For sure, it’s Roger, to me.

Consistency on Grand Slams and ATP World Tour Finals

I believe that ATP World Finals are less significant than slams, but for sure more significant than ATP 1000.

Below is Rafa's performance on Grand Slam and ATP World Tour Finals from '03 to '09.

Grand Slam     '03       '04       '05      '06       '07       '08       '09        SR       W-L     Win%

Aus. Open       A         3R       4R       A         QF       SF        W       1 / 5     21–4    84.00

French Open    A         A         W       W        W        W        4R       4 / 5     31–1     96.88

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