Men's Tennis: 5 Reasons Why Nadal Is Still Better Than Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic has taken over the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings.

However, it's crazy to say that he's better than Nadal.

Fact of the matter is, Djokovic hasn't dominated as long as Nadal has. All he's had is a fantastic 2011 season. He may be the best player this year, but one can't put him above Nadal because of one unreal season.

Here are five reasons why Djokovic is light years away from Nadal and why he will never reach him.

Grand Slams

Nadal has 10. Djokovic just got his third. 

The age difference is not even that wide between the two. Nadal is only a year older than Djokovic and has seven more Grand Slam titles. Djokovic might never even reach ten in his career and we know that Nadal still has a few more left in his sleeve.

In fact, Djokovic won two of his three Grand Slams in this calendar year. 

Let's not overstate his success. 

Head-to-Head

It's well documented that Djokovic has beat Nadal five consecutive times. 

However, overall, Nadal has won 16 of the 28 meetings. 

Most of Nadal's losses this year have come against Djokovic but people should not overreact. They need to look at the situation as a whole. Djokovic may be catching up, but until he continues this trend of dominating Nadal then we can't say that he's better than him.

Nadal Is Great Against Everybody

Here's a glaring stat.

Rafael Nadal against players who have been ranked No. 1 overall at some point in their career is 62-30 lifetime. He rises up to the occasion and dominates the best.

In fact, against players who have been ranked in the top 30 at some point in their career, Nadal has a winning record against everybody but five players. Four of those players are guys that Nadal has played once or twice early in his career and lost. The only guy who really has Nadal's number is Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal is 4-6 against him.

Djokovic on the other hand has sub .500 records against the best in the world. He's 9-14 against Roger Federer, 12-16 against Nadal, 3-5 against Andy Roddick, 0-2 against Marat Safin, and 3-5 against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Beating the Mardy Fishes and Nicolas Almagros of the world is nice. But in order to be the best in the world, Djokovic needs to improve his record against the proven champions. 

He's been showing strides of improvement in 2011, but don't jump the gun and say he's better than Nadal. 

This Is Djokovic's Peak

It's fair to say that Nadal had his peak in 2008 when he had his 32-match winning streak. 

It's also fair to say that Federer's peak was in 2006-07 when he had his 41-match winning streak.

Pretty much these long streaks are a sign that a tennis player is peaking. Djokovic has peaked with his 50-1 run. He's slowly going to start eroding after this year. These are his best days. And if he's seven Grand Slam titles behind Nadal, then it's likely that he will never catch up. 

Tennis players generally start slowing down when they're in their late 20s. Many people agree that Federer's best days are behind him and he's only 29. Some are even calling Nadal done and he's 25. If that's the case, then Djokovic has a very small window to succeed and overtake Nadal in the win column. 

It's highly unlikely he will do this. 

Not Enough Pelts

What do Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Andre Agassi all have in common?

They've each won an individual Grand Slam tournament four times or more.

Novak Djokovic doesn't even have four Grand Slam titles overall. 

If he wants his name to be mentioned with the greats, Djokovic needs to start dominating. He really doesn't have a specialty Grand Slam. Nadal owns the clay surface of the French Open. Federer owns Wimbledon. Connors and McEnroe owned the US Open. Agassi owned Australia.

Djokovic is now No. 1 in the world. But how long will he be there? There have been plenty of No. 1-ranked players who reach the pinnacle and then slowly fade away. Will Djokovic rise up to the challenge and be mentioned among the greats like Sampras, Federer and Nadal?

Chances are he won't. He doesn't have many Grand Slam titles. He has losing records against the best in the game.

And he doesn't have much time left.