Roger Federer of Switzerland serves to Lleyton Hewitt of Australia during their men's final match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament
Roger Federer of Switzerland serves to Lleyton Hewitt of Australia during their men's final match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament Reuters

Former world's no.1 and multiple Grand Slam winner Andre Agassi recently dropped a bomb during a recent interview with Singaporean newspaper Strait Times by saying Rafael Nadal has already dethroned Roger Federer as the greatest tennis player of all time.

Agassi, who is without a doubt among the greatest netter to ever play the game, had been staying off from this particular conversation until that day when he finally picked his choice between the Mallorcan Bull and the Swiss Master.

"I'd put Nadal number one, Federer number two. Federer separated himself from the field for four years. He separated himself from Roddick and Hewitt. Nadal had to deal with Federer, Djokovic, Murray in the golden age of tennis. He has done what he has done and he's not done yet," Agassi said in the interview, via Tennis Tonic.

"He has won multiple majors, every single one more than once except the Australian Open - and give him another year on that. It's just remarkable to me what he has done, and he has done it all during Federer's prime."

The 27-year old Nadal recently won the Mutua Madrid Master, upping his Masters 1000 tally to a record-setting 27th. He already captured multiple titles in each Grand Slam event - except the Australian Open - and became the only second male player to win a career golden slam by adding an Olympic Gold medal to his haul of majors titles.

However, according to Sportskeeda writer Adnan Akhtar, Nadal has still some gap to cover for him to formally dethrone Federer as the greatest tennis player to ever play the game.

One reason Federer still holds the title up to now is his achievement as the only player to hold the no.1 spot in the world ranking for 230 consecutive weeks (302 weeks overall), and of course, being the holder of 17 Grand Slam titles.

Indeed, Nadal is at the prime of his career and still has a lot of opportunity to add more Grand Slam titles. Then again, Agassi's claim that Nadal has already overtaken Federer is premature. For tennis pundits, nobody is going to overtake Federer's throne unless he surpassed the Grand Slam haul of the other.

Until Nadal wins more major crowns than Federer, the Swiss Master is the greatest player of all time.