# Federer vs Nadal vs Djokovic — 16 Lists That Split Them
> Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic won 66 majors between them. Sixteen rankings later, they still refuse to line up in the same order.
*By YPB Team · Published July 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/federer-vs-nadal-vs-djokovic-ranked*
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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — 16 rankings where they meet. Photos: si.robi (CC BY-SA 2.0), Carine06 (CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped), James Boyes (CC BY 2.0).
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic won 66 Grand Slam singles titles between them and spent twenty years taking them off each other. Djokovic leads the count with 24, Nadal has 22, Federer 20 — and that is the only lens where the order is settled. Change the surface, the tournament or the passport and the trio reshuffles. Below they meet in 16 rankings, and each one asks a different question.
> Ask who won the most and you get one name. Ask who owned clay, or grass, or the crowd, and you get another. None of the answers is wrong.
## The question everyone starts with
"Best male tennis player of all time" is the argument that made these three famous outside tennis. All of them are on the list, alongside Rod Laver, Pete Sampras and Björn Borg, who each held the title first.
Djokovic has the numbers. He owns the majors record at 24, the most weeks at world No. 1, and a winning head-to-head against both of the others: 31–29 over Nadal across 60 meetings, 27–23 over Federer.
Federer has the argument that numbers do not settle. Twenty majors, eight Wimbledons and a one-handed backhand that a generation of players copied — plus the head start, since he already had four major titles before Djokovic played his first Grand Slam main draw in January 2005.
Nadal's case is the one in the middle: 22 majors, a 24–16 record against Federer, and the only losing head-to-head of the three. The counter-argument for both of the others is that the sport's oldest lists were written before any of them arrived.
Sixteen names, three of whom spent two decades arguing about it. Play it →
## Count the majors and the question narrows
Reframe the argument around Grand Slam titles only and the field shrinks to eleven names — Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, then Sampras on 14 and everyone else in single figures.
Djokovic's 24 is the men's record, and its shape is unusual: at least three titles at every one of the four majors, including ten Australian Opens.
Nadal's 22 is the most lopsided total in the sport. Fourteen of them came at one tournament, which is more French Opens than Federer and Djokovic have Wimbledons and Australian Opens combined.
Federer's 20 stood as the men's record from the 2018 Australian Open until Nadal matched it in 2020 and passed it in 2022. His counter-argument is the traffic: he reached 31 major finals and lost eleven, ten of them to Nadal or Djokovic.
Twenty-four, twenty-two, twenty — and eleven men who have to live with it. Play it →
## Dominance is a different measurement from titles
Weeks at world No. 1 measures something majors do not: not the fortnights you win, but the years nobody gets past you. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are all here, and so are four men who topped the ranking before it meant what it means now.
Djokovic has 428 weeks at the top — more than 100 clear of anyone else in ATP history, and roughly eight and a quarter years of being the best player alive.
Federer has 310, including 237 in a row between February 2004 and August 2008. That consecutive streak is still the record, and it is the statistic his supporters reach for first.
Jimmy Connors is the reason this list is not a Big Three podium. He held No. 1 for 268 weeks in the 1970s, 160 of them consecutive. Nadal, for all the majors, spent 209 weeks there — sixth all-time.
Ten men who ran out of opponents, for a while. Play it →
## Move to Paris and the argument stops being an argument
The French Open list is the one place where the trio's order is not really contested. Fifteen names are on it, men and women, and Nadal's record there is the most extreme in tennis.
Nadal won 14 titles at Roland Garros and went 112–4 across his career on the court. Four losses in nineteen years: Robin Söderling in 2009, Alexander Zverev in 2024, and Djokovic twice.
Djokovic is on the list because of those two wins as much as his three titles. Beating Nadal in the 2015 quarter-final and again in the 2021 semi-final made him the only man to do it more than once, and the 2021 win came from a set down over four hours.
Federer's single French Open, in 2009, arrived the one year Nadal did not reach the final. That is the counter-argument in miniature: the same tournament, a completely different sentence depending on which of the three you write about.
Fifteen Roland Garros champions, and one of them won it fourteen times. Play it →
## The list Federer is not on
Greatest clay-court player is the first ranking in this article where one of the three does not appear at all. Nadal and Djokovic are both there. Federer is not.
Federer won one clay major in twenty years and lost four French Open finals, all of them to Nadal. On any other surface his absence would be strange; on clay it is simply accurate.
Nadal is the reason the question gets asked. Beyond the 14 Roland Garros titles he won 63 clay titles in total, including twelve at Barcelona, eleven at Monte-Carlo and ten in Rome. His career record on the surface is 484–51.
The list is not only about the men, either. Steffi Graf won six French Opens and completed the Golden Slam in 1988, and Chris Evert and Justine Henin sit alongside her — a reminder that "clay-court greatest" was a live argument long before Nadal picked up a racket.
Ten clay-court specialists — and the one name missing is the point. Play it →
## Change the surface and the order inverts
Grass reverses the clay ranking almost exactly. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are all on this list, and the man who is missing from the clay one leads the case here.
Federer won eight Wimbledon titles, more than any other man, across fifteen years — his first in 2003, his last in 2017 at 35.
Björn Borg won five in a row from 1976 to 1980 on grass that played faster and lower than anything at Wimbledon today. Pete Sampras won seven in eight years in the 1990s. Both are on the list, and both make the "modern grass is a different sport" argument for whoever wants it.
Djokovic's seven Wimbledons match Sampras and include four straight editions between 2018 and 2022. Nadal won two, in 2008 and 2010, which for a player labelled a clay-courter is a quiet correction to the label.
The surface where the clay list turns upside down. Play it →
## Nineteen Wimbledon champions, and Nadal is not one of them
This ranking narrows grass to a single fortnight and stretches it across the whole history of the tournament — nineteen champions, men and women, from Althea Gibson and Margaret Court to Carlos Alcaraz. Federer and Djokovic are both on it. Nadal is not.
Federer belongs here on the raw count: eight titles and twelve finals at the All England Club, the last of them in 2019 at 37.
Djokovic belongs here on the era: seven titles won while Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray were all still in the draw, including the 2019 final he took 13–12 in a fifth-set tie-break after saving two championship points.
Nadal's absence is the interesting part. Two Wimbledon titles and five finals is a career for most players — and it is not enough to make a list of nineteen, which is a fair summary of what the standard at this tournament looks like.
Nineteen champions at one tournament, and one famous name left out. Play it →
## Hard courts host three of the four majors
Most professional tennis is played on hard courts, which makes this the surface ranking that covers the most ground — and the one where the current generation gets a say. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are all on it, along with Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.
Djokovic has won 14 of his 24 majors on hard courts, including ten Australian Opens. No man has more hard-court majors, and no man has more titles at any single hard-court event.
Federer took 11 of his 20 there — six Australian Opens and five US Opens, the latter five in consecutive years from 2004 to 2008.
Nadal's six hard-court majors are the smallest share of the three, and they include the 2022 Australian Open he won from two sets down at 35 years old. Sinner and Alcaraz are the reason this list will not stay still: between them they have taken over the hard-court majors of the mid-2020s.
The surface that decides three majors a year. Play it →
## Sometimes the ranking is not about players at all
Change the unit from careers to single matches, and Federer, Nadal and Djokovic stop being contenders and become halves of other people's arguments. Thirteen Wimbledon matches are on this list, and the three of them appear in four.
Federer vs Nadal, 2008 is the one most often called the greatest tennis match ever played: five sets, two rain delays, and darkness falling as Nadal served it out 9–7 in the fifth.
Djokovic vs Federer, 2019 is the counter-nomination. Federer held two championship points on his own serve at 8–7 in the fifth and lost the first final ever decided by a 12–12 tie-break.
The list also holds Isner vs Mahut, the 2010 first-round match that ran 70–68 in the fifth over three days, and Borg vs McEnroe in 1980. Andy Murray's 2013 win over Djokovic is on it too — the match that ended a 77-year wait for a British men's champion, which is a kind of significance no rally counts.
Thirteen matches, and the Big Three are in four of them. Play it →
## The same trick, in Paris
Roland Garros finals get their own list of ten, and Federer, Nadal and Djokovic occupy half of it — but as matches, not as names, which changes who they are competing against.
Federer vs Nadal appears twice, from 2006 and 2008. The 2008 final ended 6–1, 6–3, 6–0 in one hour and 48 minutes, the most one-sided major final either man ever played.
Nadal vs Djokovic, 2012 is the four-set final that finally gave Nadal a seventh title in Paris and pushed him past Björn Borg's record.
The two oldest entries are the ones that put the trio in perspective. Ivan Lendl came back from two sets down against John McEnroe in 1984 for his first major, and Stan Wawrinka beat Djokovic in 2015 in the middle of Djokovic's best season. Neither has anything to do with the Big Three, and both are still on the list.
Ten Roland Garros finals, five of them featuring one of these three. Play it →
## Out of tennis and into the big room
Widen the question to every sport and the trio's advantage evaporates. Thirty-two athletes are on this list, and Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are three tennis players among footballers, basketball players, sprinters and cricketers.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar are all on it.
Federer's case outside tennis is the strongest of the three: Forbes had him as the world's highest-paid athlete in 2020, the first tennis player ever to top that list, and most of it came from endorsements rather than prize money.
Nadal and Djokovic bring different constituencies. Nadal won Olympic singles gold in Beijing in 2008 and five Davis Cups with Spain; Djokovic carried Serbia to its only Davis Cup title in 2010 and won Olympic gold in Paris in 2024. In a room this size, though, all three are specialists against people whose sports are simply bigger.
Thirty-two athletes, three of whom hold a racket. Play it →
## Seventeen Swiss athletes, and the tennis player is the outlier
Nationality is the one lens that separates the trio automatically, because each of them carries a different passport. This list holds seventeen Swiss athletes, so Nadal and Djokovic have nothing to enter.
Federer is the most decorated Swiss sportsperson in any discipline: 20 majors, 103 tour titles and 237 consecutive weeks at world No. 1.
The company is mostly made of snow. Simon Ammann won four Olympic ski-jumping golds, Vreni Schneider three in alpine skiing, Dario Cologna four in cross-country, and Fabian Cancellara took two Olympic time-trial golds and seven cycling Monuments.
That is also where Federer's own gap shows. He never won an Olympic singles gold — a doubles gold in Beijing in 2008 with Stan Wawrinka, who is on this list too, and a singles silver in London in 2012 behind Andy Murray. Martina Hingis, five majors and world No. 1 at 16, makes it two tennis players on a list where tennis is not the national sport.
One country, seventeen athletes, and most of them ski. Play it →
## Fourteen Spanish athletes, and only one of the three qualifies
Nationality is the one lens that separates the trio automatically. This list holds fourteen Spanish athletes, so Federer and Djokovic have nothing to enter.
Nadal's Spanish credentials go beyond the majors: an Olympic singles gold in Beijing in 2008, a doubles gold in Rio in 2016, and five Davis Cup titles.
The company is serious. Seve Ballesteros won five golf majors and turned the Ryder Cup into a European event, Miguel Indurain won five consecutive Tours de France, Pau Gasol won two NBA championships, and Fernando Alonso has two Formula 1 titles.
Andrés Iniesta scored the goal that won Spain the 2010 World Cup, and Carlos Alcaraz is on the list as the player carrying Spanish tennis after Nadal. A national list is a smaller room than "greatest of all time" — and a much harder one.
One country, fourteen athletes, one tennis player. Play it →
## Eighteen Serbian athletes, and only Djokovic qualifies
Serbia's list is the third of the nationality trio, and it works the same way: Federer and Nadal are not eligible, and Djokovic is on his own.
Djokovic's Serbian record runs past the majors. He led Serbia to its only Davis Cup title in 2010 and finally won Olympic singles gold in Paris in 2024, at 37, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final.
Nikola Jokić is the name that makes this a contest rather than a coronation: three NBA Most Valuable Player awards and the 2023 championship with the Denver Nuggets, won as Finals MVP.
Ana Ivanović and Jelena Janković both reached world No. 1 in 2008, the same year Ivanović won the French Open — Serbian tennis produced three No. 1s inside twelve months. And Milorad Čavić is on the list for losing: one hundredth of a second behind Michael Phelps in the Beijing 2008 100m butterfly, the margin that kept Phelps' eight-gold Games intact.
Eighteen Serbian athletes, one of whom holds the men's majors record. Play it →
## Their own century, and they are three of twenty
Narrow the field to athletes of the 21st century and the trio's era is exactly the period being judged — all three of them are here, and so are seventeen other people who spent the same twenty-five years redefining their own sports.
Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are the only three from a single sport on the list, which is an argument in itself: no other discipline produced three simultaneous all-time greats in the same era.
The counter-argument is standing right next to them. Michael Phelps won 23 Olympic golds, Usain Bolt eight while holding the 100m and 200m world records since 2009, Lionel Messi eight Ballons d'Or and the 2022 World Cup, and Tom Brady seven Super Bowls.
Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Allyson Felix, LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton and Eliud Kipchoge fill out the rest. It is the room where being one of the three best tennis players ever stops being a distinguishing feature.
Twenty athletes of one century, and three of them play tennis. Play it →
## The only list with a clock on it
Every ranking above is about what has already happened. This one asks who is best right now, and it is the only list in the article where two of the three cannot appear.
Federer retired in September 2022 at the Laver Cup, playing his last match in doubles alongside Nadal. Nadal retired in November 2024 at the Davis Cup finals in Málaga. Neither can appear here.
Djokovic can, and does — at 39, ranked No. 4, with no titles in the 2026 season and a 9–4 record. He lost the Wimbledon semi-final in July to Jannik Sinner, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4, one match short of the eighth Wimbledon title that would have matched Federer and the 25th major that would have stood alone.
Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev fill out the list. Djokovic enters the US Open on 30 August still chasing the 25th, and on returning to Wimbledon he said after that semi-final: "I'd like to. At least one more time. Let's see."
Ten current players, and only one of the Big Three among them. Play it →
## The argument never actually closes
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played each other 150 times across twenty years, and the longest of those rivalries — Djokovic and Nadal, 60 meetings — ended 31–29. Sixteen rankings later, the same thing is true of the lists: change the surface, the tournament, the decade or the passport and a different one of them belongs at the front. That is not indecision — it is what happens when three players are good at different things at the same time. It's the same trick behind every ranking here — judging things [two at a time](/articles/what-is-pairwise-comparison).
All 16 rankings, in one place:
- [Who is the best male tennis player of all time?](/ranking/who-is-the-best-male-tennis-player-of-all-time)
- [Who is the greatest men's Grand Slam tennis champion of all time?](/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-mens-grand-slam-tennis-champion-of-all-time)
- [Who is the most dominant world No. 1 in men's tennis history?](/ranking/who-is-the-most-dominant-world-no-1-in-mens-tennis-history)
- [Who is the greatest French Open champion of all time?](/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-french-open-champion-of-all-time)
- [Who is the greatest clay court tennis player of all time?](/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-clay-court-tennis-player-of-all-time)
- [Who is the greatest men's grass-court tennis player of all time?](/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-mens-grass-court-tennis-player-of-all-time)
- [The 19 Greatest Wimbledon Champions of All Time](/ranking/the-19-greatest-wimbledon-champions-of-all-time)
- [Who is the greatest hard-court tennis player of all time?](/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-hard-court-tennis-player-of-all-time)
- [The 13 Greatest Wimbledon Matches of All Time](/ranking/the-13-greatest-wimbledon-matches-of-all-time)
- [What is the greatest French Open men's singles final of all time?](/ranking/what-is-the-greatest-french-open-mens-singles-final-of-all-time)
- [Who is the favorite athlete worldwide?](/ranking/who-is-the-favorite-athlete-worldwide)
- [The 17 Greatest Swiss Athletes of All Time](/ranking/the-17-greatest-swiss-athletes-of-all-time)
- [The 14 Greatest Spanish Athletes of All Time](/ranking/the-14-greatest-spanish-athletes-of-all-time)
- [Top 18 Serbian Athletes of All Time](/ranking/top-18-serbian-athletes-of-all-time)
- [The 20 Best Athletes of the 21st Century](/ranking/the-20-best-athletes-of-the-21st-century)
- [Who is the best men's tennis player in the world right now?](/ranking/who-is-the-best-mens-tennis-player-in-the-world-right-now)
Pick the question you actually care about, and vote it out.
## More rankings, more angles
- [Jannik Sinner: Best in One List, Last in Another](/articles/jannik-sinner-ranked-many-ways) — the man who ended Djokovic's Wimbledon
- [Messi vs Ronaldo, Ranked Side by Side](/articles/messi-vs-ronaldo-ranked) — the other twenty-year argument
- [LeBron James vs Michael Jordan: Who Wins Which List?](/articles/lebron-james-vs-michael-jordan-ranked) — a GOAT debate with two names instead of three
