Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis icon with 22 Grand Slam titles and a former world No. 1, shared his insights on his rivalry with Serbian player Novak Djokovic, who holds the record for the most major wins with 24.
“Playing against Novak is always a unique challenge. While we might have different tactical approaches, I’ve always known that to win, I need to play my absolute best tennis throughout the entire match. Our playing styles are different, and there’s no single strategy that always works, unlike perhaps against Roger, where I often aimed for his backhand.”
“Against Novak, I feel I must maintain a high level of play for a long duration and constantly adapt. I can’t simply hit high balls to his backhand because he handles them exceptionally well and puts you in a difficult position. That’s why I often used a sliced backhand, which sometimes helped, and tried to play more towards the center to avoid giving him angles to exploit.”
“Against Novak, if you don’t create enough problems, you allow him to dictate the game. In terms of ball control, he is the best player I have ever faced and ever seen,” Nadal stated, as quoted by Punto de Break.
