{"id":181933,"date":"2025-06-13T20:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T20:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/181933\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T20:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T20:05:10","slug":"novak-djokovic-now-names-who-he-thinks-was-the-most-talented-between-himself-roger-federer-and-rafael-nadal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/181933\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic now names who he thinks was the most talented between himself, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Novak Djokovic is one Grand Slam title away from having the most majors of any man or woman in history. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>His most recent attempt at the record came at this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/French-Open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">French Open<\/a>, where he made the semi-finals before bowing out to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/jannik-sinner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jannik Sinner<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>At 38 years old, he continues to perform at the highest level and recently became the third man in the Open Era to reach 100 titles, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/the-symbolic-stat-that-novak-djokovics-wife-has-pointed-out-after-he-beat-hubert-hurkacz-to-win-the-geneva-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Djokovic won the Geneva Open<\/a> in May. <\/p>\n<p>The Serb\u2019s tally of 24 Grand Slam crowns exceeds that of his long-time rivals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/roger-federer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Roger Federer<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/rafael-nadal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rafael Nadal<\/a>, who have 20 and 22 to their names, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/novak-djokovic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Djokovic<\/a> recently spoke on Federer and Nadal, and gave his verdict on who the biggest talent is out of the \u2018big three\u2019. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"666\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-1426557119-1024x666.jpg\" alt=\"Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic conversing during the 2022 Laver Cup\" class=\"wp-image-89911\" \/>Photo by Julian Finney\/Getty Images for Laver CupNovak Djokovic says who was the most talented out of \u2018the big three\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Neuspjeh prvaka YouTube channel, Djokovic said: \u201cWhen we compare me, Federer and Nadal, Federer is the most talented one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most beautiful to watch when playing, he used his energy most efficiently. He moved lightly, so elegantly and so efficiently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNadal is the opposite extreme. He dominated physically. I was somewhere in between, but I leaned more towards Nadal\u2019s style of play.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"inline-links multi\">\n<li>Djokovic\u2019s head-to-head record against Nadal: 31 wins, 29 losses<\/li>\n<li>Djokovic\u2019s head-to-head record against Federer: 27 wins, 23 losses<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cMore sliding, more running, baseline-focused play and so on. Each of us had our own characteristics, and over time, as our rivalries developed, they evolved and strengthened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always say that, all three of us, and I know they have said it too, that those rivalries contributed to one another\u2019s growth as tennis players and as people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say without hesitation that my rivalry with those two had the biggest influence on my development, especially in the second part of my career from 2011 onwards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Novak Djokovic says Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are \u2018irreplaceable\u2019<\/p>\n<p>On his rivalries with world number one Sinner and Roland Garros champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/carlos-alcaraz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, Djokovic said: \u201cIt\u2019s not the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSinner and Alcaraz are truly exceptional, outstanding players. I\u2019m sure we will be seeing them for many more years to come as leaders of the sport, tennis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, though Federer and Nadal are irreplaceable, and a large part of me left with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd as Federer left and as Nadal gradually stepped away, not officially retired yet, but even when he was still around, I felt different than I do today, after he is completely gone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really am different. I thought it wouldn\u2019t be like that but it is,\u201d said the world number five. <\/p>\n<p>Sinner leads the head-to-head against Djokovic 5-4, while Alcaraz trails against the seven-time Wimbledon champion 3-5. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic is one Grand Slam title away from having the most majors of any man or woman&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4294,4295,4296,13325,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-181933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-novak-djokovic","10":"tag-rafael-nadal","11":"tag-roger-federer","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114677856571434687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}