Consider the following:- Pete Sampras won 5 Grand Slam championships by his 23rd birthday
- Roger Federer won his 4th Grand Slam championship just after his 23rd birthday
- Rafael Nadal has 6 Grand Slam championships with the French Open still to play before his 23rd birthday. Nadal has never lost at the French Open.
Much of the narrative in tennis over the past few years has been "Is Roger Federer the greatest tennis player ever?" and "How many Grand Slams will Federer win?". Perhaps now that Nadal has beaten Federer 5 times in Grand Slam championships on 3 different surfaces, it is time to suggest that at the end of their respective careers that Nadal will be regarded as the superior player. While both Federer and Nadal both lack one Grand Slam championship for the career slam, with Nadal being discussed as the best ever clay courter, it seems doubtful that Federer will be able to triumph in Paris. Nadal on the other hand as beaten Federer on the hard courts and being 5 years younger it seems a virtual certainty that he will win a US Open at some point in his career, possibly as early as this year. Also with Nadal holding a 5-2 lead over Federer head-to-head in Grand Slam finals, Nadal is going to stand in the way of Federer putting serious distance between himself and Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam Championships. Seeing as Nadal is also ahead of their both their respective Grand Slam paces, it looks like a good bet that Nadal is going to break all of their records by the time that he sets down the racket.
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