Novak Djokovic talks about how Rafael Nadal’s energy changed towards him after he started winning against the Spaniard

Novak Djokovic opens up about his relationship with Rafael Nadal.

Novak Djokovic talks about how Rafael Nadal’s energy changed towards him after he started winning against the Spaniard

Novak Djokovic( L) and Rafael Nadal (R) (Credits SkySports and The New York Times)

Rafael Nadal, according to Novak Djokovic, stopped loving his imitations of him after the Serb began beating him on the tennis court.

At the 2007 US Open, the Serb had copied Nadal’s lengthy serve routine. He garnered a great reaction from the audience by imitating the Spaniard’s move of changing his slacks. Later, in 2009, he was bold enough to impersonate Nadal in front of him during the Rome Masters presentation ceremony.

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During a recent interview with John McEnroe, Djokovic spoke about how the Spaniard and him had developed a friendship in the beginning. He stated that earlier Nadal was actually okay with him impersonating him until the Serb started winning on the tennis court against him.

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The World No.1 said “Early on in my career, when he was kicking my a** on the tennis court, he was ok with that, but when I started winning a few matches I felt like the energy shifted a bit.’“

The two rivals have played 59 matches against each other, with the Serb having a slight edge over him. He has a 30-29 advantage in the head-to-head record. However, at the start of their professional careers, the equation was substantially stacked in Nadal’s favor.

Both players had met 23 times before to the conclusion of 2010, with Rafael Nadal winning 16 of those encounters. But, over the next few years, Novak Djokovic managed to flip the tables, winning seven consecutive finals. This comprised the Wimbledon and US Open championship matches in 2011, as well as the Australian Open in 2012.

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Novak Djokovic on being the “Bad Guy” of tennis

Novak Djokovic has stated that when he first arrived on the tennis scene, he felt like the ‘bad guy of tennis’ due to the popular face off between between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Last weekend, the tennis legend won the US Open for the fourth time and his 24th Grand Slam title by defeating Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in the final. The ‘Djoker” as people like to call him has spoken openly about his reputation in the game in comparison to the fan’s favourites.

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Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic (Credits: Tennis365)

However, the 36-year-old’s journey to the top has not been without controversy, and Djokovic says that he had to accept being the bad guy when competing at the highest level.

In an interview with ESPN, he told tennis icon John McEnroe, “The rivalry with Nadal and Federer, and I kind of put myself in the mix. In a way, I thought there was no room for three for many years, so I had to live with it.”

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