By Alberto Amalfi
© Melchior DiGiacomo

(October 13, 2010) Rafael Nadal is the world's top-ranked player, but former World No. 4 Jonas Bjorkman believes Roger Federer is in a class by himself when it comes to rating the world's best player. Federer gave Bjorkman one of the worst beatings of his career, a 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 thrashing in the 2006 Wimbledon semifinals and the Swede, who never won a set from the Swiss in five career meetings, rates Federer above Nadal.

"There's a difference in class and Federer is a much, much better player than Nadal at this point in time," said Bjorkman in comments published by Reuters.

The 24-year-old Nadal is five years Federer's junior, owns a 14-7 career edge over Federer in their head-to-head series and will be playing for his fourth consecutive Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open in January. Nadal completed the career Grand Slam by winning last month's US Open to collect his ninth major championship, but Bjorkman asserts the Spaniard must match Federer's current record of 16 majors to even be in the discussion of Greatest Player Of All Time.

"Nadal has to come up to the same level when it comes to grand slam titles before it (who is the greatest among Federer and Nadal) can even be discussed," Bjorkman told Reuters. "It's a question of injuries and motivation and how long he (Nadal) can continue, but the big difference is that Federer is such a great ambassador. He does so much to market tennis."