Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
World Number tennis player, Novak Djokovic couldn’t defend his title in New York, at US Open 2019, but however, he was happy for his age-old nemesis, Rafael Nadal as he uplifted his 19th Slam of his career at the American major.
“We have always respected ourselves and I am glad of his victory and that he is playing well,” Djokovic reflected upon Rafa’s victory in New York this year. Also, right after the epic US Open finals at Flushing Meadows, Novak Djokovic sent his felicitations to Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev for putting a historic show at the American Slam’s finals and thanked them for a “fantastic match”.
World No.1 Novak Djokovic is not worried about his no.1 spot in the ATP rankings as he recovers from his shoulder injury to be back on the tour during the Asian swing next month.
“I know that Rafa will not play in Asia but I defend many points and he is the first in the ranking of the year. I do not want to think about the number one because it is putting pressure on,” Novak Djokovic said in an interview.
The Serbian is just 640 points ahead of Rafael Nadal, who claimed the 19th Grand Slam title of his career at the US Open 2019 earlier this month. Nadal is way ahead of the 32-year-old in the ATP race to London with 9,225 points in the 2019 season and Djokovic behind him with 7,265 points.
However, Novak Djokovic explained that he is not thinking about securing the no. 1 ranking as it will put more pressure on him. He knows that Nadal has no points to defend in the remaining part of the season as he had not played a single match after pulling out of the 2018 US Open but he does not want to concentrate on the rankings.
Novak Djokovic, who won the 2018 Shanghai Masters and was the runner-up at the 2018 Paris Masters and 2018 ATP World Tour Finals is defending 2,600 points over the coming months.