The former Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal gave an extensive interview to the Spanish “Movistar TV” in the show “Universo”, and the inevitable topics were Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
Jorge Valdano is the host of this show, and the former Argentine soccer player spoke openly with Nadal about his rivals.
“Everything went through phases. When you’re young, you experience it all much more intensely. With age, everything slowly eases. The positive thing from our era is that we finished our careers and can go out to dinner together without any problems. That’s why I’m proud. We fought for everything most important in sports, but we never went to extremes. We always had rivalry only on the field, and our private relationships were always respect, admiration and even some kind of friendship.”
Then Nadal continued.
“We came to tennis after Pete Sampras, who had 14 Grand Slams. It was human to think that it was the maximum. But the three of us never relaxed. The demands were always maximum. We never stopped demanding more from ourselves. We never threw tournaments. That is the greatness of our era. We always played in the finals and fought for titles. I don’t believe that only one of us, without the remaining two, would have been able to do it”.
In the end, he points out that he is happy to have been part of an era, reports Nezavisne.
“I’m happy to say that I was part of this story. Without the slightest desire to take anything away from what the two of them are doing, I can say that the three of us have contributed a lot so that the next generations understand that they can be great rivals on the court without the imperative to hate each other. That’s a good legacy that we left,” concluded Rafael Nadal.
(Vijesti.ba)
