LOL at putting Novak ahead of the Fraud at RG.
1 RG + 4 RU > 1 RG + 3 RU
RG 13 SF was a defacto final man , not sure you could say the same about RG 05 SF
It's close anough anyhow IMO that we should look at other things.
Novak has simply handled Rafa better both on clay and to a smaller, but noticeable extent at RG, I don't think the argument that Nadal wasn't at his peak really holds water when you look at some of Fed's losses over the years to Rafa at RG, never really getting close to a win.
Even throwing out the 15 loss to Novak because of Rafa's atrocious form, look at the SF in 13 , never seen Federer get that close to Rafa at the French. 13 may not be peak Rafa on clay, but it was good enough that I dont think you can asterisk it as a rubbish Nadal or anything.
A better argument might be that Novak matches up better with Rafa than Federer which is true, but I don't see how you can't count how they perform against the GOAT of GOATS on the surface as a sort of tiebreaker when they are so close otherwise. It's disengenuous not to.