While we have forever lauded the 'Big Three' for their incredible talent on court, during a recent interview, Rafael Nadal praised Novak Djokovic, revealing that he was the Spaniard’s trickiest opponent during his career.
On Andy Roddick’s podcast, 'Served', Nadal suggested that the Serbian superstar was more difficult to face than Roger Federer, with the 14-time French Open champion needing to "adjust things" and play "very well" to beat Djokovic as compared to Federer.
"Against Novak we can have a strategy, but at the end, I need to play very well," Nadal said.
"Against Roger, I damage him against his backhand; against Novak, I don’t have that feeling. I needed to play very well for a long time, and I had to adjust things."
Although it’s difficult to rank the likes of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic when it comes to the greatest ever in the men’s game, Nadal highlighted the fine details that made the 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic so hard to play.
"I can’t play too many times against his backhand, especially high balls, because then he takes the ball quicker and puts you in a very difficult position," he said.
"In terms of ball control, I think he’s the best I ever played, and I ever saw."
The pair played against each other on 60 different occasions and have a very even head-to-head record of 31-29, with Djokovic marginally leading the battle. Despite facing such a brilliant opponent, Nadal saw simplicity in shot-making as an effective strategy against Djokovic throughout his career.
"I started to use the slice more against him and sometimes against Novak, it was good to play to the middle. Don’t give him a lot of angles," he said.
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In comparison to his head-to-head record with Djokovic, Nadal defeated Federer 24 times from his 40 meetings, edging the Swiss champion out. He said the strategy was clearer against Federer and both players knew exactly what they had to take away from each other.
"With Roger, I think the strategy was more clear. I was trying to do one thing, he was
trying to do the other thing," Nadal explained.
"I was trying to kill his backhand all the time; he was trying to play more aggressive, it’s a little bit more of a chess match, everybody knows what’s going to happen. When he was playing very well, he beat me, when I was playing well, I beat him."
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