{"id":193621,"date":"2025-10-06T18:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193621\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T18:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:45:11","slug":"ft-novak-djokovic-rafael-nadal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/193621\/","title":{"rendered":"ft. Novak Djokovic &#038; Rafael Nadal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Roger Federer has named his five greatest tennis players of all time, and his former rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic both made his list.<\/p>\n<p>Along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/rafael-nadal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nadal<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/novak-djokovic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Djokovic<\/a>, Federer himself is considered by many to be one of the three best players to ever play the sport.<\/p>\n<p>During a remarkable career spanning from 1998 to 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/roger-federer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Federer<\/a> won 103 ATP singles titles, including 20 Grand Slams, and spent 310 weeks as the world No 1.<\/p>\n<p>Only Djokovic (24) and Nadal (22) have secured more majors than Federer in the history of men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n<p>The legendary Swiss shared incredible rivalries with both Nadal and Djokovic during what was a golden age of tennis. Federer amassed a 23-27 record from his 50 encounters with Djokovic and a 16-24 record from his 40 matches against Nadal.<\/p>\n<p>In a conversation with Nigerian singer Burna Boy on the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1NUpLWKaws8\" target=\"_blank\">Complex YouTube channel<\/a>, Federer was asked to name the greatest tennis players ever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gotta go back, you know, who inspired me\u2026 For me, I needed my GOAT people who were on the wall at home and I wanted to be like them,\u201d said Federer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd for me, that was Stefan Edberg, Swedish guy. He always attacked the net, he was super elegant. He was the coolest.<\/p>\n<p>Tennis News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/roger-federer-ultimate-honour-tennis-hall-of-fame\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger Federer set to receive the ultimate honour \u2013 and he could be joined by an old friend<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/jannik-sinner-response-alexander-zverev-roger-federer-court-speed-claims\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Everything Jannik Sinner said in response to Alexander Zverev and Roger Federer\u2019s court speed claims<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then Boris Becker, from Germany. They (Edberg and Becker) used to play against each other, so I used to be watching them on TV.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then Pete Sampras was the next one, from the US. And then, of course, Nadal and maybe Djokovic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Edberg and Becker each won six Grand Slam titles, while Sampras claimed 14 \u2014 which was the men\u2019s major title record until Federer broke it in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>After Burna Boy said, \u201cI know someone you don\u2019t like, Rafa Nadal\u201d, Federer clarified that he has a good relationship with the Spaniard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like him (laughs). I\u2019m cool with Rafa, we\u2019re good,\u201d Federer said of Nadal.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in December 2023, Federer expressed his gratitude for his rivalries with Nadal and Djokovic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was really happy and fortunate to play against them almost 40 to 50 times each so I have a lot of memories from a lot of great matches, battles,\u201d said the Swiss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have answered questions about them so many times and I can only say the best things about them. It has been great to share the court with them for so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/novak-djokovic-shanghai-masters-favourite-jannik-sinner-retirement\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Novak Djokovic: Why the Shanghai Masters could be the Serb\u2019s last real chance to win big<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Federer has named his five greatest tennis players of all time, and his former rivals Rafael Nadal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-193621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}