Federer has taken more than 200 weeks from Nadal at No. 1, in addition to preventing Spaniard from ending the season at No. 1 on 4 occasions.
He has taken two Miami titles, two IW titles, 1 Australian title, 2 or 3 Wimbledon titles, a Shanghai title, a Basel title, 2 or 3 WTF titles.
I don't even count the titles of Hamburg and Madrid on clay.
Without the Swiss in between, Nadal would have surpassed the record of consecutive weeks as number 1 that Connors had at that time, he would have equaled the record of six consecutive years ending the season as number 1 of Sampras (2005-2010).
He would have won the DCGS.
He would have been a Wimbledon legend, on a par with Borg.
He would have been an even better player on hard courts.
And he would have been a Master on indoor hard courts.
Without Federer, Nadal would make a mockery out of the tour. The scale of his success is almost unimaginable. Phelps, Jordan, Gretzky, Bolt, Brady...all would bow to him.
Thanks goodness Federer was around to prevent that from happening. It's the same with Navratilova and Chris Evert in the WTA, had one of them not being around, the other would win everything and set every tennis records.
