This makes no sense. Nadal only lost two times in the early rounds of a GS in the last four years (against Rosol and Darcis).
This response makes no sense. I was talking about the comparison of the players career head to heads and one of the many flaws of using such a metric, so why would you limit it to the last 4 years? Also which 4 years are you counting? There is also his loss to Soderling in 2009 at the french. Which is kinda what i was getting at, Federer won that grand slam which Nadal was competing in but because Nadal bowed out early it means nothing in terms of head to head.
I think you and i were thinking differently in terms of early rounds. I don't mean an early exit like round 1 or 2, i just mean getting knocked out before facing one of the top 4 essentially (which has happened more times than you list there).
That's what i was getting at. If Nadal gets knocked out before meeting Federer (or any other other big name player) or misses out due to injury that means nothing in terms of their head to head.
This doesn't just apply to Federer either.
Probably worth noting that four of Nadal's FO wins were against Federer in the final.
I don't see how that counters my point or is even really relevant to it.
Just as another example take this year for the Nadal vs Djoko head to head. At the Australia open Nadal pulled out with injury (even though on current form he has no chance of beating Djoko off clay) so even though he went on to win the slam it means nothing in their head to heads.
Then at the french where Nadal has the big upper had they actually do face which does count towards their head to head record. Then at wimbledon where Nadal again has little chance of beating Djoker he gets knocked out right at the start.
So this year in GS head to heads Nadal is up on Djoker. Yet their record for the year is Nadal,1 grand slam win, 1 1st round exit. Djoker has had 1 grand slam win and 2 grand slam finals. Which one has been the better player this year?
Woops forgot Djoker got knocked out early LOL. So that one counts the other way.