Rafael Nadal has given his verdict on why tennis fans enjoyed this rivalry with Roger Federer more than his battles with Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
In an interview with former world No 1 Andy Roddick on his Served podcast<\/a>, 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal<\/a> opened up on a wide range of topics as he looked back on his remarkable story in tennis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And when it came to the two rivalries that defined his career, Nadal suggested there was a reason why tennis fans around the world were more eager to see him play Roger Federer<\/a> than they were to see him take on Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nadal, Federer and Djokovic won a remarkable 66 Grand Slam titles between them as they re-write the record books, yet the Spaniard believes there was a reason why his matches with Federer resonated more with a tennis audience.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Roger, the rivalry was a little bit more attractive for the fans than with Novak against me,\u201d he declared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEven if I played more times against Novak and we played the same important matches or even more, but with Roger the strategy was more clear.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was trying to do one thing, I was trying to do another thing. I was trying to kill his backhand all the time and even if I had the chance to play the shot down the line (to his forehand side), it is only for two reasons. One, I go for the winner or two because I need to put him away from that side to create more space.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was trying to avoid that, he was trying to play more aggressive and every time he hit a forehand, I would take a step back. For me, his forehand was the best I played against.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like a chess match. Everyone knows what\u2019s going to happen. Everyone knows what the strategy is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n When he turned his attention to his matches against Djokovic, Nadal offered some generous words to a rival who will finish ahead of his two great rivals in the race to be known as the most successful male tennis player of all-time.<\/p>\n While Federer and Nadal\u2019s rivalry has turned into a strong friendship between the duo, that has not always been reciprocated with Djokovic.<\/p>\n Compared: Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic past the age of 35<\/a><\/p>\n The 10 men to complete the Career ATP Sweep as Stefanos Tsitispas achieves feat: Novak Djokovic No 1<\/a><\/p>\n Yet Nadal accepted Roddick\u2019s suggestion that the three most prolific winners in men\u2019s tennis drove each other to fresh heights as they rewrote the tennis record books.<\/p>\n \u201cAgainst Novak, it was a little bit different. We can have a strategy, but I needed to play very well against him,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t play the same style, but it is not a clear strategy against Novak. Against Roger, I damage him with his backhand. Against Novak, I don\u2019t have that feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I started to use the slice against him. Sometimes it worked me well. Also, I played more to the middle. Don\u2019t give him a lot of angles.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of ball control, he is the best I ever played and I ever saw.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: The 7 men with the most Indian Wells match wins: Roger Federer with 66<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Rafael Nadal hails Novak Djokovic as \u2018the best I ever played and ever saw\u2019 in one key area<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rafael Nadal has given his verdict on why tennis fans enjoyed this rivalry with Roger Federer more than his battles with Novak Djokovic. In an interview with former world No 1 Andy Roddick on his Served podcast, 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal opened up on a wide range of topics as he looked back on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n