8 reasons why Rafael Nadal is greater than Pete Sampras

Both names are frequently uttered in the GOAT debate – The King of Clay and The King of Grass. Pete Sampras, one of Roger Federer’s idols, has been part of the debate – with Federer himself in quite another league. In 2017, Rafael Nadal proved detractors wrong after a low 2016 season and talks of burnout and retirement. The powerful Spaniard came back well-rested, recuperated and raring to go in Melbourne, enjoying a dream run to the finals with some inspired tennis to set up a finals clash with long-time rival Roger Federer. And despite Nadal not winning that final, the Spaniard proved beyond a doubt that he is back in the game – and well and truly part of the GOAT debate.Here, we look at eight reasons why Nadal has already edged past Sampras in the debate.

#1 Grand Slam distribution

The most obvious fact which anyone would point out while comparing Nadal and Sampras is that while they both have 14 Major titles now, Nadal has won all four Grand Slams, while Pete Sampras never won the French Open. His best result there was a semifinal showing in 1996.

#2 Career Golden Slam

Nadal has also won the Olympic gold in addition to the four Majors; he achieved this feat in Beijing 2008. Sampras played the Olympics only in 1992, when it was played on clay. He only managed a third round showing there.

#3 Time span

Sampras took 14 years to accumulate his 14 Major titles, and the last one came after a gap of two years. Nadal on the other hand has managed to capture the same number of Slams in 13 years, and is still very much in his prime. He has a high probability of adding to that count in the next couple of years.

#4 Winning percentage

Nadal is among the top 3 players in career winning percentage, at 82.22%. Sampras, on the other hand is at 77.44%.

#5 Career titles

Nadal has won 80 titles in his career, with 69 of them being singles titles. Sampras has 64 singles titles and only two doubles ones, giving him a total haul of 66.

#6 Masters victories

Nadal is No. 2 on the list of players with the most Masters 1000 tournaments won, with 28 titles, while Sampras is far behind him, having accumulated just 11 Masters titles.

The Spaniard won his most recent ATP 1000 level title in 2016 at the Monte Carlo Masters, beating Gael Monfils in the final.

#7 Rivals

Nadal belongs to the “golden age” of tennis in which the level of the game has been taken to dizzying new heights by the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Nadal has faced these three several times throughout his career, and he has a positive head-to-head record against all of them except Djokovic.

Sampras, on the other hand, belonged to an era where there were no all-time greats in the mix apart from Andre Aggasi and Boris Becker, and he pretty much dominated them both.

#8 Davis Cup

Nadal trumps Sampras in team events too. Sampras won two Davis Cup titles with USA, in 1992 and 1995, while Nadal was part of a Davis Cup winning team four times - in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011.

More importantly, Nadal was perhaps the most vital part of each championship winning side.