World no.1 ranked tennis star Novak Djokovic opened up about how Rafael Nada’s pre-game rituals were pissing off, as he spilled the beans on his thoughts about his rival. In an interview, the Serbian spoke about Nadal’s rituals before the Roland Garros 2022 game and revealed that he had even been intimidated by the actions in the early part of his career.
Speaking to news magazine 60 Minutes, Djokovic revealed his thoughts on Rafa’s locker room rituals before the Roland Garros game. He revealed that the Spaniard would ‘jump around’ the locker room, make sprints and would even listen to loud music which would be audible to the person in the next locker room. Djoker, however, admitted that while was intimidated by it at the start, he eventually realised that it was motivating him to get ‘ready for war’.
Nadal and Djokovic last came face to face at the Roland Garros in 2022 in which the clay court king emerged victorious. The Serb has won 30 games while playing against the Spainiard while Rafa has 29 victories against Djoker to his name.
‘Roger Federer was a far better player’: Djokovic
The Serb also opened up about the Wibledom 2019 final and said that Roger Federer was ‘the far better player’ than him.
He said, “That happened in 2019 when I played finals of Wimbledon, that marathon match, epic match with Roger. I remember that very well. I beat him 13-12 in the fifth set. The sets that I won were all won in tie breaks, seven-six, seven-six, 13-12. And overall, if you see stats, he was far better player in every aspect.”
“But I won the match. And so that actually tells you that you can still win if you pick and choose in which moments of the match you’re peaking, and you’re playing your best when it matters.”
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