By Chris Oddo | @Thefanchild | Thursday 13 March 2025
In Podcast -in “Serve with Andy Roddick”, Rafael Nadal Joins the former US Open champion for an extremely honest interview. Rafa talks about an hour with Roddick and the whole interview is excellent.
But when the conversation addressed Nadal talking about his three great rivals Roger Federer AND Novak DjokovicThe ears are sure to grow. I’m not sure we have ever heard Nadal talk about the nuts and bolts of his tennis this way. Because when he played he was always worried to give up his many tactics.
Now that he is retired he can finally speak honestly about what he was dealing with when facing these two giants of the game in the most incredible era he has seen for men.
Check the full episode below:
And here are some extraordinary pieces that we have transcribed for you:
Nadal why feder-nadal was more attractive to fans than Djokovic-Nadal
In my opinion, this is why Roger’s rivalry was a little more attractive to fans than Novak against me. Even if I have played more times with Novak, and we have played exactly the same number of important matches, or even more. Because with Roger I think the strategy was clearer.
Nadal on the tactics of Federer vs Nadal
I was trying to do one thing, he was trying to do another. In a way I was trying to kill behind him all the time, and even for me, if I had the opportunity to play the goal below the line, I was saying to myself: well, when I have to play the goal below the line, it is only for two reasons: one, for the winner. Next is because I have to remove it from that side to create more space again.
And he was trying to avoid it.
He was trying to play aggressively. Whenever he was hitting his preface, I felt like I had to withdraw, because his precursor, to me, is the best I played against. It was a little more like a chess match. Everyone knew what would happen, everyone knew what the strategy would be. And then when he was playing very well, he beat me when I was playing well and beat him. At the beginning of my career, I beat her more in clay and in the hardcourts had been much harder.
Nadal why 2017 Federer was the hardest version of Federer ever faced:
Then he arrived the moment I managed to beat him in strong courts several times. And then at the end of his career I think he took a step forward. He was playing much more aggressively and, for me, he was making a mistake against me at the beginning of his career, playing with his backward ball, who gave me the opportunity to continue hitting the forewords against my back. Then at the end of his career he began to go inside and take more danger.
For me, honestly in 2017, for a while it was the best level of his career – for me. You felt you were in his hands. Of course in hardcourts. In clay, it was a little different. He played very, very aggressively and his service was so difficult to read to me, it was very difficult to predict what was happening.
Nadal over what made the rivalry djokovic different:
Against Novak was a little different. We can have a strategy, but in the end it has to do … I have to play well. We do not play the same style of course, but there was no clear strategy like me against Roger, where I would damage his back. I didn’t have that feeling against Novak. The feeling was that I would have to play very well for a long time, and to know that I had to fix things.
Nadal why Djokovic had the best ball control ever
I couldn’t play many times against his back, especially high balls because then he gets the ball faster and puts you in a very difficult position, so I started using more slice against him, and sometimes worked for me well, and sometimes against Novak it was good for me to play in the middle. Do not give it many perspectives. With Novak when you were able to open it, if you did not create much damage, he was able to open you more. In terms of control – ball control – I think he is the best I have ever played, and I have ever seen.
