Rafael Nadal has revealed he is proud that he, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have proven to younger generations of players that \u201cyou can be a fierce competitor without hating your rival.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rivalries between Nadal, Federer and Djokovic are universally considered to be three of the greatest rivalries in the history of tennis.<\/p>\n
Nadal<\/a> finished with a 24-16 record from his 40 matches with Federer and a 29-31 record from his 60 matches with Djokovic. The head-to-head series between Djokovic and Federer finished 27-23 in favour of the Serbian.<\/p>\n The \u2018Big Three\u2019 rivalries are the three most prolific matchups by number of matches contested in the Open Era of men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n Nadal, a former world No 1 and 22-time Grand Slam champion, called time on his glittering 23-year career at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.<\/p>\n During an appearance on the Universo Valdano programme on Spanish TV network Movistar+, Nadal discussed his relationship with Federer and Djokovic.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go through phases. When you\u2019re younger, you experience everything more intensely. As the years go by, things soften,\u201d said the 39-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cThe positive thing about our time is that we\u2019ve finished our careers and can go out to dinner together without any problem. This is something to be proud of. We\u2019ve competed for the most important things, but we haven\u2019t taken it to extremes.<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal \u2018don\u2019t know\u2019 what the Big 3 rivalry truly meant, according to Roger Federer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Rafael Nadal reveals his favourite of the 14 French Open finals he won<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe rivalry has stayed on the track, and personal relationships have always been based on respect, admiration, and even a certain friendship with our rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n The legendary Spaniard went on to point out how his respectful relationships with his biggest rivals have left a legacy that Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have learned from in their own rivalry.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy to have been a part of this story. Without taking anything away from Sinner and Alcaraz, who want to do things right, I think we (the Big Three) have helped new generations understand that you can be a fierce competitor without hating your rival.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can have an optimal relationship, not necessarily a friendship. It\u2019s a good legacy we\u2019ve left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n Nadal also spoke about his renowned mental toughness and never-say-die attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think I was losing and still believing, but no. What I didn\u2019t do was give up. I knew I was losing and I thought I was going to lose, but that didn\u2019t stop me from trying,\u201d Nadal explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to find permanent solutions. It comes from understanding what sport is. Sport is about trying to give your best even if you know you\u2019re going to lose.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat obsessed me most in my career, or what would have always bothered me the most and what I couldn\u2019t tolerate, was if after playing a tournament I went home with the feeling that I hadn\u2019t done everything in my power to make things go well.<\/p>\n \u201cI was trying to find solutions rather than dwell on the outcome. I was thinking about what I could do to try and change the dynamic. Most of the time when you\u2019re losing, you can try things, and the ones that work are always worthwhile.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, from those moments of mental effort, you achieve small victories that, over the course of a year, can turn things around.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Boris Becker names four players who could break Carlos Alcaraz & Jannik Sinner\u2019s Grand Slam duopoly<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Why Rafael Nadal is \u2018proud\u2019 of Djokovic, Federer relationships as he makes Alcaraz, Sinner comment<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rafael Nadal has revealed he is proud that he, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have proven to younger generations of players that \u201cyou can be a fierce competitor without hating your rival.\u201d The rivalries between Nadal, Federer and Djokovic are universally considered to be three of the greatest rivalries in the history of tennis. Nadal […]<\/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-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","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=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n