Rafael Nadal breaks silence on Novak Djokovic winning 24th Grand Slam title by calling it ‘greater frustration’ for Serbian

Rafael Nadal has his say about Novak Djokovic's 24th Grand Slam title.

Rafael Nadal breaks silence on Novak Djokovic winning 24th Grand Slam title by calling it ‘greater frustration’ for Serbian

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (Image via: Imago/Twitter/Pavvy)

Spanish legend Rafael Nadal breaks silence on Novak Djokovic‘s 24th triumph at the US Open. In a recent interview with Moviestar, The Matador was asked about how he felt about one of his biggest rivals’ US Open title that made him two Grand Slams clear of himself in the race. Interestingly, his reply was rather surprising for the tennis community, as he did not actually congratulate Djokovic and further went on to say that the Serb wanted that record more than himself.

Rafael Nadal said, “I think Djokovic lives it in a more intense way. For him, it would have been a greater frustration not to achieve it.” That not all; as per the 22-time Grand Slam title champion himself, he is not frustrated about being second on the list now, as he believes he did everything possible to achieve this triumph, and he can’t live frustrated with winning 22.

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Rafael Nadal’s statements were, as expected, not well received by a lot of tennis fans, as many of them tarnished the Spanish legend for not congratulating the serb for his achievement. However, on the other hand, a section of tennis fans were there to stand with the 2008 Olympic gold medalist. 

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Rafael Nadal still holds positive head-to-head against Djokovic in Grand Slams

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic (Credits: French Open)

Although World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has broken most of the important records recently, he still trails Rafael Nadal in the Grand Slam head-to-head. The Spaniard was able to stop the Serbian 11 out of 18 times at the biggest stage of his career. Apart from this, Nadal also got the better of the Serbian star in their only match-up in the Olympics.

In the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing, Nadal defeated Djokovic in the semi-finals on the latter’s favorite hard court surface to get a chance to play for gold against Fernando Gonzalez. As expected, Nadal was able to grab the gold, and to date, an Olympic gold is something Novak Djokovic has yet to win in his illustrious career.

Nadal leads Djokovic 8-2 in the French Open and 2-1 in the US Open, whereas Djokovic has the edge in the Australian Open 3-0 and in Wimbledon 2-1. With that being said, Djokovic has the edge in their overall head-to-head by the slightest of the margins possible, 30-29.

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