Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer enter a room. Only one comes out. | ATP tour

Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal enter a room and close the door behind them. Like in a classic western movie, only one of them is going back.

There are a myriad of ways to compare and contrast the Big 3 in the endless GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) debate. One way is simply hand in hand: how do they pile up directly against each other?

At this specific point in their unfinished career, the player who walks out the door is Djokovic.

An in-depth analysis of Infosys ATP Insights in three metrics of the games played by Federer, Djokovic and Nadal only against each other identifies that the Serbian is slightly ahead with the Swiss and the Spanish. It is important to note that they played 145 games in the ATP, Grand Slam and Davis Cup events. There are two Davis Cup games that count on the overall record of wins / losses, but are not part of the official ATP match statistics.

Points, Games, Sets, Games = Djokovic
Djokovic is the only Big 3 player to have won over 50% of the points against his two opponents. When you break their legendary rivalry to the bricks of our sport, Djokovic won 50.34% of the points played in “Big 3 battles”, with Federer at 49.84% and Nadal only a hair at 49.79%.

Less than one percentage point separates the three. When you put magnitude under a microscope, razor-thin edges emerge. All in all, the world of tennis was endowed with just over 50,000 points (51,770) when these three players found themselves in the middle of each other.

Djokovic is the only player to win over 50% of the games played, at 50.82%. Nadal has won exactly half of his games (50%), while Federer is close to 49.13 percent. The first real separation is found in the sets, where both Djokovic (52.26%) and Nadal (51.49%) have won more than half of the sets, while Federer is less than 46.27%.

One metric that has significant weight in this analysis is that Djokovic and Nadal have both won more games than they have lost in rivalry.

Won / Loss Games (including Davis Cup)
• Djokovic = 53.33% (56/105)
Nadal = 52.63% (50/95)
Federer = 42.39% (39/90)

Serve = Federer
Federer outperformed Djokovic and Nadal in service statistics, finishing ahead of the service points he won (63.68%). The Swiss created the maximum separation with first service points won at 71.80 percent, which was more than three percentage points more than Djokovic (68.48%) and five percentage points more than Nadal (66, 01%).

Federer served 782 aces against Djokovic and Nadal, while Serbian and Spaniard accumulated roughly the same amount (801) put together. One metric that might surprise us most is that Djokovic did the best behind his second serve, winning 53.58%. Nadal made it to the top of the breakpoints saved at 60.61%.

Returning = Nadal
The Spaniard won the most return points at 37.32 percent and finished first with second service return points won at 48.89 percent. Interestingly, Federer finished first with first-serve return points won at 32.10 percent, which was about two percentage points higher than his two rivals. Nadal was also the most ruthless at break points converted to 42.36 percent.

It is clear that this three-way rivalry has helped to elevate the rarefied air trio in our sport. Ironically, the more they compete to compete with each other down the mountain, the higher all three reach the top.

Three metrics: 143 ATP and Grand Slam games between Djokovic, Federer and Nadal

Percentage points won

Percentage of games won

Set of percentages won