The rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is one of the best rivalries seen on the men’s tennis circuit. However, there was a time when the Serbian tennis player, Novak Djokovic, didn’t really enjoy their rivalry. Recently, the world number two recalled his early tennis days, when he witnessed the ‘Fedal’ rivalry very closely.

When the 35-year-old was trying to make a name for himself in the tennis world, his other rivals were already ruling the ATP Tour. The Federer-Nadal rivalry was quite different than the other rivalries seen in the history of tennis.

Novak Djokovic recalls the Federer-Nadal rivalry 

The current world no. 2 spoke for the first time after pulling out of the Miami Open with CNN. In that conversation, the ‘Djoker’ discussed his decade-long rivalry with the other big three players. He also revealed how he didn’t always enjoy being a part of the big three clan.

He said, “Well, at the beginning of my professional career when I was kind of breaking through it was – on the men’s side – only about Federer and Nadal really. About their rivalry and such an opposite style of tennis and their epic matches they played. So it was kind of hard for me to get into the mix.”

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However, after many years, he considers it an honor to have built such a famous rivalry with the best tennis players of his era. Not only that, but he believes his success is due to his big three rivals, who made him stand out on the tennis circuit.

Djokovic thanks Federer and Nadal for his success 

A few years back, in an interview with the Indian news outlet NDTV, Djokovic talked about how he was grateful to be a part of the Federal-Nadal era. Then he expressed his gratitude to his big three rivals, saying how grateful he was to share the stage with them.

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Not only that, but he also explained how, in his early days, he used to wish to be from a different era, seeing the way his Big Three rivals dominated the sport all by themselves. Will Djokovic be considered the GOAT if he surpasses Nadal in the number of Grand Slam titles?