Andy Roddick recently explained how he changed his opinion of Rafael Nadal, whom he initially thought was humble for show only.
The Spanish player was always described as a humble tennis player, and fans could spot it if they carefully observed his behaviour. From the way he treated everybody on the court to the way he talked about opponents, Nadal just never came across as too confident in any way.
It's particularly impressive because he has plenty of reasons to be really confident, considering he's one of the best tennis players of all time.
Initially, Roddick thought Nadal was not being genuine, but over time, he realised that it was simply who Nadal truly was. He would change his opinion of him and even come to understand his humble nature.
"I would hear his press conferences and I would roll my eyes, 'cause it would be, you know, a pre-press deal at Roland Garros and he's playing some guy who is 80 in the world against who, you know, has won 87 matches in a row at Roland Garros. [He's like], 'The guy plays well, I don't know it, anything can happen today...'"
The American discussed Nadal in the most recent episode of his Served with Andy Roddick podcast, in which he had Coco Gauff's current coach as his guest.
"It's really endearing 'cause I operated the same way, just nearly not as well or nearly as long! But kinda dealt from a place of insecurity, right? Won certain type of matches 400 times in my career, and at 401, I'm like, 'Gonna be all different this time. And it's an endearing quality, I used to think I don't know, 20% false humility and you're saying the right thing 'cause you don't wanna be disrespectful."
Roddick grew to like Nadal very much over the years, as he found him the most relatable of the Big Three. He admired all of them deeply, but to him, Nadal's humble nature and approach to things were most relatable.
" That's a lot of intent to present yourself a certain way, but then you see him behind the scenes and the way that he operated, the way he treated people. And you're like, 'Okay, this guy is who he is.' He is that sort of human."
"It was nice to see someone who's utterly dominant and also be kind of scared of the next result. Made him relatable, especially to someone like me who sees these three guys as absolute superheroes. For me, he was the most relatable."
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