well federer was top of the rankings for a very, very long time and nadal gets there and then djokovic or federer takes it back.

the fact that federer didnt lose it for 237 weeks is ridiculously good that he maintained such a high standard of play for over 4 years. The closest person to that is Jimmy Connors with 160 weeks and Nadal's best run at the top is 52 weeks.

that in my opinion is the difference between the two: the consistency that federer posses which nadal lacks.