Rafael Nadal has revealed that Roger Federer didn’t like information overloads during his career. Nadal and Federer were huge rivals on the court and faced each other in eight Grand Slam finals.
Nadal’s first Grand Slam final against Federer came at the French Open in 2006 as the Spaniard came from a set down to dispatch the Swiss ace. And their rivalry peaked in the following years, with their showpiece matches at Wimbledon in 2007 and 2008 ranked among the best finals ever at the All England Club. Federer brought his career to a close in 2022 after winning 20 Grand Slam titles, with Nadal deciding to retire in 2024 after getting his hands on 22 Majors.
Nadal spoke about Federer during an interview with Movistar+ as he marked the one-year anniversary of his retirement.
And giving an insight into the 20-time Grand Slam champion, he explained: “The world evolves and the way of playing is a little different. You hit harder, you serve harder.
“I still believe in intuition, not playing like a robot trying to guess based on statistics. It’s something I talked about with Federer and he didn’t like having too much information.”
Nadal and Federer were soon joined by Djokovic at the top of the sport, with the three players battling between themselves for dominance at virtually every Grand Slam. Djokovic went on to leapfrog both his rivals in the Grand Slam pecking order as he claimed his 24th Major at the 2023 US Open after defeating Daniil Medvedev in the showpiece match.
When the trio came onto the scene, Pete Sampras found himself clear at the top of the all-time men’s Grand Slam title standings after winning 14 Majors.
Sampras was a dominant force in tennis during his playing days and claimed seven Wimbledon titles, five US Open trophies and two championship victories at the Australian Open.
And Nadal added: “We came from Pete Sampras, who had 14 Grand Slams. It is human that some of our generation, when they reached 14, would have thought they had reached the maximum.
“We, being three, not two, there was never room for relaxation. The demand was maximum. We never stop demanding each other. You had no room to throw tournaments.
“That is the greatness of our time. We were always in the final rounds competing for the biggest tournaments. I don’t think just one would have been able to do it.”