Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are fierce rivals, but they also have a good relationship, according to the Spaniard.
Rivalries in sports are very unique, and maybe even hard to understand for most people. Athletes spend most of their careers around each other, week in and week out.
They meet in the same restaurants, gyms, and practice areas, and they even practice together sometimes. Two athletes might need to attend the same sponsor events or, in some cases, even play doubles together at some exhibition events.
There are just too many points of contact for athletes to be complete strangers, and that's even more true when it comes to two of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Nadal and Djokovic faced each other 60 times, the most of any duo in the history of the ATP Tour. They have competed for Grand Slams for nearly two decades, and as such, they know each other incredibly well.
However, that doesn't mean they are friends. For example, Nadal and Roger Federer were fierce rivals at the beginning, and their rivalry didn't turn into a friendship until very late in their careers.
When it comes to Djokovic, it's obvious that the Serbian now has a much better relationship with Nadal and Federer than he maybe did in the past, but it would still probably be weird to call them friends in the right sense of the word.
Djokovic explained it in the past when he stated that their relationship was built more on respect than friendship. The Serbian had an obvious reason for approaching his relationship with these two rivals like that: He didn't want his personal life weaknesses to be exposed on the tennis court.
But as his two rivals are no longer his rivals (Federer retired in 2022, and Nadal will retire at the end of the 2024 season), their relationship seemingly shifted towards friendship.
That was also reflected in Nadal's recent interview with DAZN ahead of the 2024 Six Kings Slam, where they will both compete. The 38-year-old Spaniard explained that as he comes to the end of his career, he understands that there is also life outside of the sport.
"Of course, with Roger Federer has been special, but with Novak too, I have a good relationship. It's the way that you approach the sport I think. That's possible because in the end, as I said before, we understand that that's all you get. In life, we have many more important things outside of tennis."
During his tennis career, Nadal also understood that having a good relationship with his rivals would make him happier, especially since he would be able to keep them even after he retired.
"At the end of the day, if you have a good relationship with the colleagues, with the people who are next to you or with the people in general, without a doubt in my experience, you will be happier. So at the end tennis is only a game, relationships go beyond that."
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