Nadal was peaking in 2011-2013? He spent like 8 months on the sidelines in between and was past his physical peak. Nadal's peak is difficult to define due to injuries and inconsistencies in terms of great seasons (2008. 2010, 2013, 2017) but Nadal was peaking in 2008. Nadal is also an interesting case in that he was much better on natural surfaces 2007-2010, but better on hard courts in 2013 and even now. This in large part is due to him having a more complete game in the second half of his career, but not moving nearly as well.
Also, if you're counting their matches post 2014, where Nadal was a shadow of himself up until this year, then I see no reason why you're not counting their matches between 2008 and 2010, when Novak was a grand slam winner already and a top 3 player in the world (this has always bothered me about the Nadal-Novak h2h. Why wouldn't we count their matches from that time?).
To be fair, I'm just nit-picking because I'm actually with you on the overall point re: Djokovic vs. Fedal. He's up there with them. Not in terms of accomplishments obviously (and if we're just looking at that then Nadal isn't in Federer's league either), but when he's been playing his best level, and he's done that A LOT over the past half a decade or so, he's in their league. He's beaten them more lately. but that's because when he got better they got worse, for the most part.
The 2011-13 range is when both Novak and Rafa were in what we could call peak range. I single that period out because it is the only time-frame that we get to see two of the "Holy Trinity" play each other over an extended period when both were within peak range. Unless you want to single out an "absolute peak moment," which would be hard to pinpoint and would never match up with any other player, probably. And I am counting all of their matches, just giving different ranges to consider. I count 2008-10 in their overall career numbers, but not peak as Novak hadn't yet reached his top form.
Rafa's peak range, as I see it, was 2008-13, which encapsulates his three best years (2008, 2010, 2013), and Novak's peak range is 2011-mid-2016, so the overlap is 2011-13.
I think we can agree that 2013 was a peak year for Rafa? And what about 2010? Some consider it his best overall year. 2011 was almost a carbon-copy of 2010 --
except for his record against Novak:
2010: 71-10 overall (87.7%); 2-0 vs. Novak; 69-10 vs everyone else (87.3%)
2011: 69-15 overall (82.1%); 0-6 vs. Novak; 69-9 vs everyone else (88.5%)
In other words, vs. everyone else other than Novak, Rafa was every bit as good as he was in 2010; the obvious conclusion being that Novak upped his game and had Rafa's number.
So now we have 2010-11 and 2013 being peak years for Rafa. The first half of 2012 was comparable to the previous couple years, then he missed about the last third of the year to injury. So 2012 was also peak level.
But yeah...your last paragraph is in agreement with my view and findings.
