Toni Nadal said that
Rafael Nadal and
Roger Federer's rivalry is comparable to that in another sport of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in a bitter snub of
Novak Djokovic.
The rivalry between Nadal and Federer is revered as the most iconic in the history of tennis with a total of 42 Grand Slam singles titles together and a 40 meeting career in which Rafael Nadal led 24-16 when Federer retired in 2022. Their last encounter came in 2019 when Federer won in the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
In a recent interview, Toni Nadal drew comparisons between that and Messi and Ronaldo both seen as the two greatest of all time in football. Whilst emphasising his nephew's versatility which enabled him to trump that rivalry as they could rival each other compared to Messi and Ronaldo.
“The rivalry between Nadal and Federer is comparable to Messi and Ronaldo in terms of how they have endured over time, but has two differences," said Nadal.
Between Messi and Cristiano, there is a greater difference than between Nadal and Federer, and the other difference is that Rafael can do all the things Federer can do, whereas Ronaldo cannot do everything that Messi does”
However this lit a flame under a few tennis fans who wondered where Novak Djokovic was in this debate and said that he has a personal bias against the Serbian hence why he is nowhere to be seen in the argument. "He's just so bitter and salty and trying to exclude Djokovic from everything. Nothing new from the old spaniard. We all know who the GOAT is and he knows it too, but he has a hard time admitting it," one user wrote.
Another reiterated this point: "So biased lol. Nadal can do all things Roger can huh? How many year end titles does he have when the field is the top 8 players? He’s the only 1 of the big 3 to not 3 slams 4+ times. Career titles? Weeks at #1? A lot that Fed did that Nadal couldn’t."
