I think that Soderling said it best with the following: "To me, Roger has always been the toughest opponent. He mixes up his game, he makes you feel uncomfortable. Against Novak or Rafa, you feel like you can play better and win."
Of course, Rafa and Djoker spanked Soderling too. But Federer made him look stupid with his variety. Federer also made guys like Wawrinka look absolutely stupid as well(away from clay). So I think Fed was more complete. However, Djokovic is by far the best defender of all time. And an epic defense can neutralize a stellar offense, even one with as many tools as Fed had.
Federer reminds me of the those fancy MMA fighters that can kick, jump, throw haymakers with both hands, throw wicked upper cuts, and do just about everything while being incredibly entertaining. Djoker reminds me of Khabib, a guy that was a complete machine that looked impossible to beat. Khabib has to be in the GOAT conversation, even though I don't like his style as much as others. The dude won every single time. He retired with a perfect record. He doesn't have to use the excuse that he got screwed by the judges on points, disqualification, etc. He needs zero excuses period. His resume has zero blemishes. One could say that his wins weren't as dominant. That doesn't matter. The object of the game is to win and Khabib never lost a single match. Numbers don't lie for Khabib. And they don't lie for Djoker either.
I won't bother getting into the "whose peak was better" argument. Both players were incredibly dominant. I liked watching Fed a lot more. But when watching both at their best, they both seemed equally invincable; ableit for completely different reasons. Unfortunately, Djoker was better for longer. So he will go down in history as the better player of the two. I gave up on arguing Fed's case in 2021. That's fine. Tennis moves on. I saw Lendl overtake McEnroe, which sucked. And now, it's deja vu all over again with Djoker overtaking Fed.
