I'll preface this by admitting I don't follow tennis closely anymore, but after Nadal won the Australian Open today, it occurred to me that Roger Federer wasn't the only one chasing history. Nadal has now won six Grand Slams and played in eight finals. He's also won three of the last four, and is still just 22 years old.

Moreover, he's had to face arguably the greatest tennis player in history in seven of those eight finals, and has gone 5-2. Had Nadal not been in the sport, it's quite possible Federer would have won 14 of the last 15 grand slams. (Federer has won nine, and lost five in the finals, all to Nadal).

Where does that put Nadal on the all-time list? Ahead of McEnroe, Agassi, Connors? It seems like Federer, Sampras, Borg and Laver are the top four (correct me if I'm wrong), but is Nadal the fifth best player ever (acknowledging, of course, the difficulty of comparing across different eras).