The Serbian speaks of the beginning of his career when he has insinuated in the Duopoly of Swiss and Spanish. And the conflictual relationship with the public
Many loved Federer. Many others did not hide their passion for Nadal. To cheer for Novak Djokovic, according to Serbian himself, nobody remained: “I have never been loved as Roger and Rafa, because I shouldn’t have been there”. Thus begins the winner of 100 ATP titles (as well as 24 times Slam champion) in an interview with the Podcast Failures of Champions. Nole has rewinded the tape of his career by deepening the mystical of rivalry with the other two cannibals, those who for two decades polarized tennis: “I behaved in an arrogant way, compared to them I felt an unwanted son”.
Unwanted
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Djokovic has deepened the initial period of his career, often experienced by an antagonist compared to the Federer-Nadal duo. As a third inconvenient: “It hurt me to feel unwanted, I was wondering why. Then I thought that the fans would have accepted me if I had behaved differently, but it was not like that. I have never been loved as Federer and Nadal because I shouldn’t have been there. I was the smallest, the third who appeared and said: ‘I will become the number one’. But many did not like it.” The ugly duckling had the first jolt on 23 July 2006, with the victory of the first title in Amersfort, in the Dutch 250. But it became swan a year and a half later, in January 2008 with the first Slam brought home. That of Melbourne, in the final against Tsonga.
Revenge
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From then on, almost twenty years of epic challenges against the two champions of modern tennis. And revenge: he removed the scepter of Rome and Madrid several times from the hands of Nadal, he won three finals against Federer in Wimbledon (one of which, in 2019, moved on to the legend). The rivalry has done nothing but cement, logically: “But only because someone is my biggest rival does not mean that wishes the evil, that I hate it or that he wants to beat him after having done something to him. We fought to win and won the best. I always respected both: I never said something negative about them and I will never do it”.
Good intentions
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The Big Two, in a few years, have become Three. Djokovic has resisted the weather of the years certainly better than rivals, then managing to overtake them in terms of Slam laurels: “But I have always admired them and I still admire them. I am a man with many defects, certainly, but I have always tried to live with heart and good intentions. To be myself, in short”. The former ugly duckling then went on in the chat, before answering another question about the rivals of a lifetime: “Between the two, I always agreed with Nadal”. Amen.
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