Rafael Nadal’s uncle, Toni, believes that Roger Federer has transcended tennis more than any other competitor. That’s despite Nadal putting forward a strong case to be considered the greatest male player of all time, and Novak Djokovic sitting alone at the top of the all-time Grand Slam charts.
Toni Nadal spent the majority of his career coaching his nephew, who counts 22 Grand Slam titles as the crown jewels of his tennis CV. Federer is two major triumphs behind on 20, but Nadal senior suggests that the Swiss has been the more prominent figure off the court.
That goes not only in comparison to Nadal junior, but also Djokovic, who has more Grand Slam wins than any other male player in history and could add to that total with a victory at Wimbledon this weekend.
“I think Federer and Nadal have transcended their sport more than Djokovic,” Uncle Toni told Clay. “And Federer has transcended his sport more than anyone else.
“When it comes to categorising who is the best, we would have to establish clear standards that are always a bit open to opinion, because who is the best, the one who holds the [Grand Slam] world record or the one who wins the Olympics? I don’t know.
“I think the one who has managed to play at a better level and do more difficult things is Federer, the one who has won more is Djokovic and if we were to count all the [tournaments] Rafael hasn’t played because of injury, he would probably have won more than the others.”
“What I know, because I talked to him, is that Rafael wants to come back, he wants to recover well. And if he recovers well I think he will want to continue,” he added.
“Then we’ll see because he has to get the results, which won’t be easy, because when you lose the ranking it’s more difficult because you have to compete with the best faster. Then you have to have more good days and you have to play hard matches more times. Let’s see.”
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