I mean Federer is the GOAT right??The greatest of all time?And many have debated that Sampras and Rod Laver could be the the GOAT too...but from my perspective Federer is the GOAT because he has Nadal the GROAT...the Greatest Rival ofv All Time as a rival....Think about it, true Sampras and Laver unlike Federer have greater records against their rivals e.g Agassi 20-14 in favor of Sampras..Gonzales 35-21 in favor of Laver, Rosewall 66-75 in favor of Laver and Federer is what 8-13 against Nadal....?But the main point that im trying to convey is that both Sampras and Laver are great players but they did not really have a rival that could equally give them a challenging match up..but when it comes to Federer he has to deal with probably the Greatest Rival a tennis player could ever have.Why?

First of all...

You can see that Nadal has strengthened his game on different surfaces to be on the same level as Federer and Nadal is the only challenging obstacle that federer has to face to win a Slam....Disregarding the US open final last year.....you can see that Nadal is the most frequent player to meet or beat federer in the finals of a slam...How many players have this kind of rivalry at Slams???If you look at Sampras' draw in the finals of Slams ...Agassi was not always on the other side of the net and if he was there....Sampras did not really have to work that hard to beat Agassi(As I said Agassi is not a sufficient rival to Sampras) and this is the same with Laver and his rivals...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Sampras_career_statistics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Laver_career_statistics#Grand_Slam_finals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer_career_statistics

You can argue that it could be that Sampras and Agassi have met in maybe quarterfinals or Semis but that can bring up another topic :How many pairs have been seeded as the No 1 and No 2 as long as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer???

They've been seeded as the No1 and No 2 for past five years or so??This achievement has been achieved by how many players???One defining characteristic of the rivalry is that Federer and Nadal are the only pair of men to have ever finished five consecutive calendar years as the top two ranked players on the ATP Tour

Let's also not forget the clay advantage in the head to head...
* Clay courts: Nadal 9–2
* Hard courts: 3–3
* Grass courts: Federer 2–1
take away the clay and Fed leads 5-4..

And in defence of federer..Sampras weakness on clay was never improved unlike Federer who has been consistent on every surface...Laver played most Slams on grass...

So the question of debate whether Federer may be the GOAT....well i think the question answers itself....but maybe the question you should be really asking is is Nadal really the the GROAT??
He is the first one to decline from the pair of top two players....LLook at Nadal's condition after all he's been through just to be on the same level as Federer (Injuries,confidence troubles) Quoting Joe Frazier's comment about Ali ,his greatest rival with whom he lost two out of three fights they had....Ali now suffering from Parkinson's disease " "Look at him now and look at me and tell me who really won those three fights," Frazier said." So ....The simple fact is, it's not easy to keep up with Roger Federer. It has caused truly exceptional athletes to push themselves to their physical limits and beyond. Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro have all struggled with injuries, including at the 2010 Australian Open. Nadal, just a couple of days after declaring that he was in excellent condition and had no lingering pain in his knees, defaulted mid-match against Andy Murray in the quarterfinals. Now he's going to be out of action for four weeks, and observers increasingly wonder if he'll ever again reach his 2008 level of play. Federer, meanwhile, floats on from major to major, unimpeded by physical problems despite having to lift up all those heavy trophies. Sixteen major titles; eight straight major finals; 23 consecutive major semifinals.

Yes, Federer is 2-5 in Grand Slam finals against Nadal. But look at Nadal now and look at Federer and tell me who really won those seven matches.Haha(No harm intended)

But I stand firm with my decision that Federer IS the GOAT and Nadal is the GROAT!!!

What bout you??

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