It is not a secret that Federer and Nadal are showing their best tennis in 2017 so far. The Swiss maestro is at 35 and will turn 36 on the August 8th. Rafa has recently turned 31. However, they returned the tennis lovers to the past when they dominated the ATP tour and were invincible.
The Grand Slam tournaments are the best place to start analyzing their performance throughout the season. Both players had challenging matches in the tournament which they managed to win. Eventually, they met each other in the final. Roger revealed that his one-handed backhand is no longer vulnerable to Nadal's topspin forehands. This dramatic improvement in RF's game allowed him to win the title and take his 18th GS title.
The next Grand Slam tournament was French Open. The Swiss maestro decided to skip Roland Garros leaving Nadal with even bigger chances to claim his 10th title in Paris. Having Djokovic and Murray far away from their best tennis, Rafa captured the trophy without dropping a set. By winning RG, Nadal set another milestone in tennis. 
Almost identical was the situation for Federer at Wimbledon. Rafa was out in the early rounds after a dramatic loss against Gilles Muller. The Swiss Maestro also took advantage of Djokovic's and Murray's weak performance and took his 19th Grand Slam and 8th Wimbledon title without dropping a set. The Grand Slam results are a great source of evidence to the tennis fans that were used to watching Federer and Nadal dominating Wimbledon and Roland Garros.
Another method to compare the two legends is by looking at their number of titles. If we exclude the two Grand Slam title that Roger took in 2017, he also managed to win in Halle (ATP 500), Miami (ATP 1000) and Indian Wells (ATP 1000). Very similarly, Rafa won two ATP 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Madrid and one ATP 500 title in Barcelona. Typically, for their styles, the Swiss Maestro took advantage of the faster surfaces and Nadal dominated the clay season.
Eventually, the most pragmatic way to compare the two players is by taking a glance at the ATP Rankings. Nadal holds the second position with 7465 points and is less than 300 points behind the current World No1, Andy Murray. Federer holds the third position with 6545 points and is closely followed by the 4th Novak Djokovic and the 5th Stan Wawrinka. The positive thing about the Swiss Maestro is the until the end of 2017 he does not have any points to defend. Even though Nadal played several tournaments at the end of 2016, he does not have to defend a significant number of points too.
Both Nadal and Federer have made changes in their playing styles that allowed them to be competitive in the contemporary game and even more. Additionally, both players plan their tournaments very carefully and are able to perfectly manage their energy throughout the season. This strategic move is one of the main reasons that they show their best tennis in 2017. Another view that is worth looking at is the condition of the other players. Both Djokovic and Murray are in crisis at this point. What's more, the young players are unable to be competitive enough and do not manage to win big tournaments. The factors that lead to Fedal's domination are various. 2017 made the Federer-Nadal rivalry much more interesting and left many questions unanswered. The next months in the ATP tour promise to be extremely interesting and will show if there will be a new leader in the rankings and/or new records will be made.
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