**TL;DR** - **Nadal has the crucial distinction of beating his rivals on their strongest surfaces.** As is the case with each of modern tennis's 'big 3' of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, their resumés are incredible. For Nadal, this means 20 Grand Slam singles titles (a joint record), 13 French Open titles (record), 83.2% career win percentage (first in open era) and 36 Masters 1000 titles (joint record). The easy knock against Nadal's legacy is his dominance on clay. Nadal is unquestionably the greatest ever clay court player, possessing a record 81 match winning streak on the surface. Indeed, when you see that 13/20 Grand Slams came on clay, it could be argued that his dominance on clay masks his failings on grass and hard courts. However, this is doing Nadal a disservice. Perhaps his greatest moment was winning Wimbledon in 2008 in a marathon match against the greatest ever grass court player (Federer) and in the process becoming world number 1 for the first time. On that day, Nadal achieved what was considered at that point almost unthinkable: beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon. Not only did Nadal do this, but he did it on the biggest stage. In the following years, he beat Djokovic at the US Open, thus completing his set of beating his fiercest rivals on their strongest surfaces. The converse is not something either Federer or Djokovic can say. Federer lost in 4 French Open finals to Nadal. Whilst Djokovic did beat Nadal in the quarter finals of the French Open in 2015, he has lost 3 finals to Nadal. It is this factor which sets Nadal apart.