Stefanos Tsitsipas picks who he thinks is the better player out of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
Stefanos Tsitsipas has endured a tough year on the ATP Tour missing out on the year-end finals for the first time since 2018.
Tsitsipas is an alternate for this year’s ATP Finals but is unlikely to participate in the event that he won on debut back in 2019.
The Greek world number 11 took home just one ATP title in 2024, as Tsitsipas won the Monte-Carlo Open for the third time in his career.
His late-season struggles continued this year as Tsitsipas remarkably failed to reach the quarter-final stages of either Wimbledon or the US Open for the eighth year running.
As the 26-year-old now looks ahead to 2025, and the Australian Open, he sat down to give his thoughts on some of tennis’ all time greats.
Stefanos Tsitsipas on whether Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic is the GOAT
Tsitsipas was asked to choose between a number of the greatest athletes of all time and gave some very interesting answers.
Tsitsipas was first asked who he would choose out of Carlos Alcaraz and Roger Federer.
“Roger Federer,” he said.
Attention briefly turned away from tennis, as Tsitsipas was asked to pick between Federer and basketball legend Michael Jordan.
“Oh, that’s a difficult one,” he said.
“I’m sorry Roger [Federer], Michael Jordan.”
The 26-year-old then picked Spanish legend Rafael Nadal over both Muhammed Ali and Lebron James, before finally being made to choose between Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
“Rafael Nadal,” said Tsitsipas.
His choice might be a surprise to some considering the Greek’s defeats to Djokovic in some of the biggest matches in his career to date.
Tsitsipas has reached two Grand Slam finals, at the 2021 French Open and 2023 Australian Open, falling short to the Serb on both occasions.
In fairness, he had a number of tough defeats to Nadal as well, losing in three finals to the Spaniard, two in Barcelona, and one at the 2018 Toronto Open.
Has Novak Djokovic had a better career than Rafael Nadal?
The age-old debate over the best male tennis player of all time is one with a different answer depending on who you talk to.
Some will argue that Roger Federer still deserves a mention for his style of play and dominance throughout the 2000s which saw him take home 20 Major titles.
Many, however, have settled on the other two candidates, Nadal and Djokovic, who also have plenty of data to back up their claims as the greatest of all time.
| Name | Grand Slams | ATP Finals | Masters 1000 | Olympic gold | Weeks at number one |
| Novak Djokovic | 24 | 7 | 40 | 1 | 428 |
| Rafael Nadal | 22 | – | 36 | 1 | 209 |
| Roger Federer | 20 | 6 | 28 | – | 310 |
All five of the biggest metrics would indeed suggest that Djokovic has had the single greatest career in the history of the sport.
The Serb holds several records on the ATP Tour such as the number of Major titles won, ATP Finals won, Masters 1000’s won, and the total weeks at number one.
It is of course subjective, however, and whether the numbers suggest that one player was better than the other, anyone who watches the sport will tell you that the numbers don’t always tell the whole story.
Tsitsipas is set to return to the court for the World Tennis League in December, partnering up with Nick Kyrgios for the doubles.
