For all of his clay titles and his 20-10 record over Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal admits that in the grand scheme of tennis, he has not yet caught up with the Swiss.
Nadal bases his analysis on simple numbers. And on the face of things, Federer still sets the overall pace.
“I think the head-to-head are important (regarding) important matches,” said the third-seeded Spaniard. “But, for instance, Chelsea beat Manchester United in both matches during the season, but Manchester United won the Premier League, the better team is Manchester United. That’s an example.”
For Nadal, there is no getting around Federer’s record-setting 17 Grand Slam titles compared to his own 11.
“Roger has 17 Grand Slams and a lot of records on his shoulders.
It would be very arrogant and very stupid for me say that today I have a comparison with him just because he has a negative head-to-head against me.
“I’m happy about what I achieved, I’m happy about what I’m winning. But Roger has better numbers than me, and that’s the real thing. Nobody has more Grand Slams than him. He’s the guy with more weeks in the history in the No. 1, I think. So this kind of record says that he’s the best of the history. Numbers are for that.”
