Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer have shared the court a number of times for the delight of the tennis fans. However, during a recent live event on Facebook, Nadal explained why he is happy to face Djokovic and Federer alongside other players with different styles.
Rafa explained that having the opportunity to face various players is a challenge that he cherishes.
“My favorite opponents are one that I win against normally. Well, I don’t know, I enjoy the challenges of playing against Roger [Federer] of course, against Novak [Djokovic], against Andy [Murray], against David Ferrer. I think there are a lot of great opponents and everyone gives you a different challenge and you need to adjust your game to be competitive. I don’t have a favorite opponent, I just enjoy the fact that every day we compete against a different one,” said Nadal.
Nadal, Djokovic and the US Open
With the tennis about to restart, it is not clear who is going to play which major. While Roger Federer is definitely out of the competitions until 2021 because of his right knee, Nadal and Djokovic didn’t reveal yet which tournaments they are going to play.
It seems more and more plausible that Rafa will focus on the clay-court season in Europe that will commence in September with the events in Madrid and Rome that will precede the Roland Garros. Therefore, Nadal will probably skip the North American stint and therefore he will not play the US Open.
Djokovic seems to have a different strategy. The Serbian sensation used to train for long on clay courts after making it clear that he wasn’t happy to compete at the US Open. However, recently he started to train again on hard courts prompting speculations that he will give it a shot at the American major.
Rafael Nadal in 2020
Ranked world no.2, the Spaniard played his last match on the 29th of February when he overcame Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-2 in the final in Acapulco to win his 85th career title.
This season the Spaniard has a 13-3 win-loss record. Rafael has won 1 title in Acapulco.
Novak Djokovic in 2020
Ranked world no.1, Djokovic played his last match on the 29th of February when he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3 6-4 in the final in Dubai to win his 79th career title.
Presently, this year the Serbian has a 18-0 win-loss record. Djokovic has won 2 titles in 2020 at the Australian Open and in Dubai.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played each other 55 times. The head to head is 29-26 for Djokovic. The last time that they played each other, Novak Djokovic won 6-2 7-64 in the final in Brisbane, Perth, Sydney (ATP Cup) on the 12th of January 2020.
Roger Federer in 2020
Currently ranked no.4, Federer played his last match on the 30th of January when he lost to Novak Djokovic 7-61 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal of the Australian Open.
Roger Federer’s best result of this season was reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic |
| Embed from Getty Images |
