Forget Rafa... Is Roger greater than Serena? Statistical comparison of the two
They call this the ‘Golden Generation of Tennis’ with fans being privileged to see the race for all-time greateness between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Tennis fans across the world are divided between Federer and Nadal when it comes to the ‘Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.) status in the men’s game. But with the Spaniard missing the ongoing U.S. Open due to injury, there’s another race underway in New York. That is between Federer and the women’s world no. 1 Serena Williams. Both are chasing their 18th Grand Slam singles title. Here’s our breakdown of the numbers for the two players. And for all the Rafa-philes out there, we throw in his stats as well just for good measure.
#1 Grand Slam titles
Federer and Williams are both tied at 17 Grand Slams, with the Swiss being stuck at that number since the 2012 Wimbledon Championships. Federer’s 17 Slams is the most by any male player in the history of tennis (the Swiss has a 17-8 record in Slam finals) and comprises of 7 Wimbledon titles, 5 US Open titles, 4 Australian Open titles and a solitary French Open title.
Serena has been stuck at 17 Slams since the US Open last year. While she was widely expected to tie Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova’s 18 Slams and move ahead of them this year, it has been a disappointing season for the American at the majors. Serena’s 17 Slams include five titles each at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open and two titles at the French Open. (Serena is 17-4 in Slam finals). If Serena does make it 18 this week, she only has Steffi Graf (22 majors) and Margaret Court (24 majors) ahead of her in the all-time list for women.
Here are some other numbers – Federer has 80 career singles titles, including 6 at the season-ending ATP Tour Finals whereas Serena has 62, 4 of them coming at the WTA’s season-ending championships.
P.S. For the record, Rafael Nadal has 14 Grand Slams (64 singles titles in all) – nine of them coming at his beloved Roland Garros, two slams each at Wimbledon and the US Open, and one at the Australian Open.