I'm becoming increasingly of the opinion that Fed is not the goat as Nadal gubs him every time they play and he's a goat candidate. I'm not sure if Nadal is either though. Federer and Djokovic on surfaces where you can punish more readily (faster ones) to my mind have better games than he does. This is Nadal's limitation. He's so strong and powerful and does forehand topspin like no-one has ever seen but some of the finer arts of tennis , well I don't think he has them in as much abundance as Fed or Djoko. But that said tennis is about winning so he's vlearly in the equation. Given the reative merits of both Fed and Nadal in this interesting era I prefer to think of tiers and Fed and Nadal with Sampras and Borg being in the top one. Djoko may join them too but definitely not yet and he'd have to up his game particularly against Nadal (but also Murray) to do so.
I'd have Nadal in the top tier already irrespective if he only won 13 or 14 slams. They are important but clearly you can't just robotically rank greatness on the baiss of 1 metric. And even if he wins 17 slams or more I wouldn't necessarily say he's the goat. I look at styles of play beyond just the stats and make a subjective assessment. I think overall Federer, and Djokovic have a wider and better of shots at their disposal. Nadal though to be fair is 2nd to none of the particularl set of shots he does have. He also has a slight advantage in being a lefty although one has to ask legitimate questions as to why Fed has never been able to solve it.
So, overall a score draw. Maybe a slight nod to Nadal in the future depending on success but aesthetically and range of shots...I'd be tempted to say Fed actually. Which in a circularl type way brings me back to score draw!
