Novak Djokovic: "Rafael Nadal is my greatest rival of all time. As long as he plays, I play too."

Novak Djokovic: "Rafael Nadal is my greatest rival of all time. As long as he plays, I play too."

by Zachary Wimer

Last updated

As Roger Federer is away from the ATP Tour for a long time, it looks like it will be Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal who will compete for the next Grand Slam title at the 2022 Roland Garros.

Novak Djokovic has already lifted a Grand Slam trophy above his head 20 times, while Rafael Nadal has succeeded 21 times and currently leads in this statistic.

However, at the 2022 Roland Garros, everything can change as the two will compete for glory once again, and after his triumph at the 2022 Madrid Open, the Serbian admitted that the Spanish King of Clay is his greatest rival.

"Nadal is my greatest rival of all time. As long as he plays, I play too."

The last time the two met was at the 2021 Roland Garros when Djokovic defeated Nadal on his way to his 19th Grand Slam title and they might meet this year once again.

They could have met in Madrid already, but Carlos Alcaraz stopped Nadal, and in Rome, it was the Spaniard's injury that prevented their meeting.

After his triumph in Rome, Djokovic was happy about his performance at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in the Italian capital, sharing his delight about the week that he had.

"I couldn't ask for a better week really. [I] played a perfect set today. Didn't drop a set the whole tournament. I trusted the process really when I started training on clay."

"I usually peak here in Rome. I've had six titles but also had a lot of finals and semi-finals. Always a really good week of tennis with a lot of matches, and competitiveness on the court. Anything that I was really looking for here in Rome I got."

“I could not ask for a better lead-up to Roland Garros really. Serbian Open finals, really working my way through the tournament physically. Then Madrid, better performances, but still maybe not as sharp in those decisive moments. And here everything kind of came together and clicked."

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