Nadal’s victories in Paris and London meant he was the favourite to win gold at Beijing 2008, where he was making his Olympic debut alongside future foes Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Top seed Federer was eliminated in the quarter-finals, paving the way for Nadal – who beat Djokovic in three sets in the semi-finals – to set up a battle for gold with Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez.

In the final, Nadal triumphed 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 and as a result rose to the top of the world rankings for the first time, ending Federer’s record 237-week reign.

Nadal would go on to win Olympic doubles gold eight years later in Rio with Spain team-mate Marc Lopez.

Nadal’s first Australian Open final in 2009 marked his eighth appearance in a major showpiece – his seventh consecutive against Federer.

To get there, he had already overcome compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals in a five-set epic that lasted five hours and 14 minutes – the longest singles match in tournament history until Djokovic’s victory over Nadal in the 2012 final, which lasted five hours 53 minutes.

In his first major final on a hard court, Nadal – still remarkably fresh despite his lengthy last-four tussle – defeated Federer 7-5 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 6-2.

He became the first Spaniard, male or female, to win the Melbourne Slam, as well as the first man in the Open era to hold three major titles on three different surfaces at the same time.

For a tearful Federer, it denied him a 14th Grand Slam title, which would have drawn him level with the then all-time men’s record held by Sampras.

To date, only eight men have completed the career Grand Slam – winning all four major titles – and Nadal was the seventh to join the exclusive club.

That came in 2010, a year Nadal would later say was the best of his professional career.

Reaching the rain-interrupted final of the US Open without dropping a set, he beat Djokovic 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 for his first title at Flushing Meadows and to complete the career Grand Slam.

Victory also made him only the second male after Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam – which includes Olympic singles gold – and the first man to win majors on clay, grass, and hard courts in the same year, as well as the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open (which was then played on grass) in the same year.

After Nadal’s 2014 French Open win, a three-year drought ensued amid injuries and a drop in form, with the Spaniard not reaching a Grand Slam final until the Australian Open of 2017, in which he was beaten by Federer.

But write him off at your peril. Having won titles on the clay of Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid, a resurgent Nadal returned to Paris as the favourite to land the 2017 title.

In beating Federer’s fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 6-1 in the final, the ‘King of Clay’ became the first person in the Open era to win a Grand Slam tournament 10 times.

It also marked his 15th major victory, nudging him above Sampras on the list of all-time men’s winners into second place behind Federer.

After a difficult end to 2021 in which a foot injury threatened to end his career and a bout of Covid-19 left him “very sick”, Nadal travelled to the 2022 Australian Open having played just one tournament since the previous August.

But, in the absence of the deported Djokovic and the injured Federer in Melbourne, Nadal won his second Australian Open title – 13 years after his first – by beating Daniil Medvedev 2-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-4 7-5 in a five-hour-24-minute final that finished at 01:11 local time.

Yet this was not just another Grand Slam title. It was his 21st, a men’s record that moved him ahead of Djokovic – who has gone on to take top spot with 24- and Federer.

“Without a doubt it is one of the most emotional wins of my career,” said a “physically destroyed” Nadal afterwards.

It would be just four months before 21 became 22, and where else other than at Roland Garros?

Having fallen in the semi-finals a year earlier, 2022 was the chance for Nadal to reclaim his French Open crown – and he did so by beating Norway’s Casper Ruud 6-3 6-3 6-0 for his record-extending 14th Parisian title.

With the final coming two days after his 36th birthday, Nadal became the oldest French Open men’s singles champion, surpassing fellow Spaniard Andres Gimeno, who was 34 when he triumphed in 1972.

Victory moved him two ahead of Djokovic and Federer at the top of the all-time list for Grand Slam titles on 22 – a figure that his retirement means he will stay on.

In September 2022, Federer announced he would retire after that month’s Laver Cup – a competition in which he teamed up with Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Ruud and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in a Europe side taking on a team representing the rest of the world.

It was perhaps fitting, then, that his final match was a doubles contest alongside Nadal, for so long his fiercest rival but also a good friend.

The pair – affectionately nicknamed ‘Fedal’ – almost won their tie against American duo Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe in London, missing a match point before Team World wrapped up the win.

Afterwards, Nadal could not hold back the tears, Federer’s goodbye marking the start of the end of an era. With 37-year-old Djokovic now the only member of the ‘Big Three’ still playing, the end of that era draws ever closer.

“I’m even happier to finish our career like friends after everything we shared on court like rivals,” Nadal said of Federer.