{"id":183102,"date":"2025-06-14T06:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T06:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/183102\/"},"modified":"2025-06-14T06:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T06:39:10","slug":"novak-djokovic-felt-hurt-and-unwanted-during-rivalry-with-roger-federer-and-rafael-nadal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/183102\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic felt ‘hurt’ and ‘unwanted’ during rivalry with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic has revealed he felt like an “unwanted child” being compared to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal when he emerged as a tennis star.<\/p>\n

Djokovic’s illustrious 17-year career started by breaking Federer and Nadal’s streak of 11 consecutive major wins when he was triumphant in the 2008 Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Until Federer’s and Nadal’s recent retirements, the trio maintained a legendary rivalry and won an astonishing 66 Grand Slams in total.<\/p>\n

However, Djokovic has since gone on record to explain how he felt during the rivalry.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic said he felt ‘unwanted’ by fans when he began his playing career<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n

“I acted and still felt like an unwanted child. I asked myself why that was. It hurt me,” Djokovic told Swiss publication 20 Minuten.<\/p>\n

The Serbian player, now 38, has become statistically the most successful tennis player of all time, holding the record for most Grand Slam titles.<\/p>\n

Djokovic explained that he never received the same affection from fans as his two main rivals for multiple reasons.<\/p>\n

“I was never as loved as Federer and Nadal because I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was the little guy, the third guy who came along and said, ‘I’m going to be number one.’ Many people didn’t like that,” he said.<\/p>\n

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\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic holds the record for the most Grand Slam wins with 24 titles<\/p>\n

Reueters<\/p>\n

By the time Djokovic began showing signs of greatness at the start of the 2010s, most tennis fans had already divided into Roger or Rafa camps.<\/p>\n

The Serbian player believes he “crashed” their rivalry, disrupting what had become a two-man show at the top of men’s tennis.<\/p>\n

Djokovic attempted to win over the fans but found his efforts unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

“Then I thought the fans would accept me if I acted differently. But that wasn’t the case either,” he revealed.<\/p>\n

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This likely refers to a charm offensive he embarked upon around the middle of his career, including his signature gesture of miming pushing his heart out to each corner of the stadium after victories.<\/p>\n

Despite these attempts to connect with audiences, the hurt remained.<\/p>\n

“I am a man with many mistakes, of course. Nevertheless, I have always tried to live with heart and good intentions and ultimately be myself,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic claimed he tried to act differently to endear himself to the fans<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

Despite the competitive nature of their rivalries, Djokovic emphasised he never harboured ill feelings towards either player.<\/p>\n

“Just because someone is my biggest rival doesn’t mean I wish them harm, hate them, or want to do anything else on the court to defeat them. We fought for the win, and the better player won.<\/p>\n

“I’ve always respected both [Nadal] and Federer; I’ve never said a single bad word about them and never will. I looked up to them and still do,” Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

However, he acknowledged developing different relationships with each rival.<\/p>\n

“But I’ve always gotten along better with Nadal,” he admitted, suggesting a closer bond with the Spaniard than with Federer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic has revealed he felt like an “unwanted child” being compared to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[512,93,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-183102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sgg","9":"tag-sport","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114680349693186903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183102","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=183102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}