Among tennis fans, vigorous debate has raged about whether Roger Feder

split #1 if vs whether
split #2 better vs best
split #3 either vs they

Among tennis fans, vigorous debate has raged about whether Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal is the best player and whether either should be dubbed “the greatest player of all time.”

(A) whether Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal is the best player and whether either should be .........best is wrong . we are comparing two people

(B) if Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal is the best player and if either should be ..........WHETHER is preferred . IF is used for conditionals

(C) whether Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal is the better player and whether they will have been ........ they will have been ...is awkward and verbose

(D) whether Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal is the better player and whether either should be............correct choice

(E) if Roger Federer is better than Rafael Nadal and one or the other will be...........IF is used for conditionals .

This sentence as written contains an error: When two things (or people in this case) are compared, the correct form of the word is “better,” not “best.”

Eliminate choice (A).

In the answer choices, there is a 3-2 split between “whether” and “if.” Because two people are being compared, “whether” is correct. “If” is generally not used in comparisons but only for the conditional, as in “If Roger Federer wins another Grand Slam title, he will be the greatest tennis player of all time.”

Eliminate choices (B) and (E) on this basis. (For the record, there are other problems with these two choices as well. Choice (B) contains the same error (“best”) as the original. And by changing the verb at the end from “should be” to “will be,” choice (E) alters the meaning of the sentence.)

Read choices (C) and (D) in parallel. They are alike until near the end, where (C) uses the pronoun “they” and (D) uses “either.” The subject of the clause is “Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal,” and because of the “or” and because each noun in the compound subject is singular, verbs and pronouns relating to the subject should be singular. The verb “is” is correctly used in both choices, but the plural “they” is incorrect in (C). Additionally, choice (C) uses the future perfect verb tense “will have been,” which alters the meaning of the sentence.

Answer choice (D) is correct.

Congratulations to those of you who answered this tricky question correctly! 

There were some votes for (A) as the correct answer, so let's see what we can learn from this particular trap. Always read carefully for meaning. There are two separate "whether" clauses in this sentence, and it's tempting to conflate their meanings, but if you read the second of them carefully, you'll see that whether either of these two players should be dubbed the greatest player ever is arguable. So, the first clause can't be saying that one of the two is the best ever. What about the best currently? If the writer of this sentence meant to say that, she would have placed a descriptive phrase in the first "whether" clause to introduce the "now" vs. "ever" contrast: "whether either is the best player among all current tennis players and whether either should be dubbed the greatest player of all time". There is no indication in the first "whether" clause to indicate that the writer means to make a distinction between "best at the moment" and "best ever," so we have to conclude that the first "whether" clause is merely asking about these two players compared to each other. Whenever you compare just two people or things, the correct idiom is the comparative, not the superlative: "the better of the two." This is the reason to eliminate (A).

Why 'the' in comparative form.

I have never seen its use in comparison of two people or things.

Ramesh is longer than shyam.

Please clarify.

The demonstrative adjective "the" refers to the "player". When the structure comparative adjective + than is used , "the" is not to be used. However this is not such a case. The better player is definite here (observe the usage of "the" at the beginning of this sentence) and thus "the" is used: to refer to the "player", not to "better". Consider the following examples:

1. Who is THE better player between Roger and Nadal?
2. Roger is THE better player between Roger and Nadal.

Both the above sentences are correct and "the" refers to the definite player who is better between Roger and Nadal.

However we would not use "the" in the following case:

3.Who plays better?
4. Roger plays better than Nadal.

In example 3 and 4, there is no "player", hence no "the".

Can you please tell me when exactly should one use "If" and when should one use "whether". I always get confused.

The correct option is D.
Here we dont have any conditional scenario. Thus if should be avoided.
And whenever we compare between two things, we should go with comparitive form rather than superlative form.

So based on the aformentioned rules we can easily get the answer.
The correct answer should have whether & better................................

Please find here : https://gmatclub.com/forum/if-vs-whether-162818.html

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