{"id":635549,"date":"2025-12-16T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/635549\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T07:00:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T07:00:40","slug":"andy-murray-opens-up-about-his-greatest-rivals-saying-they-couldnt-be-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/635549\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Murray opens up about his greatest rivals saying they couldn’t be ‘friends’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Murray admitted he now wants to be able to meet up with his championship rivals ‘socially’ after years of rivalry on the courts.Yasmin Syed<\/strong> and Eilidh Farquhar<\/strong><\/a> Trainee Trends, Showbiz and Lifestyle Writer<\/p>\n

17:25, 15 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"AndyAndy Murray has opened up about his past relationship with the Big Three.(Image: Cameron Smith\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Legend tennis player Andy Murray has opened up about his relationship with his old rivals, saying that while they couldn’t be ‘friends’ at the time, he hopes they can now meet up socially. Throughout his career, Andy played numerous nail biting matches against Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the Scot battled against the ‘Big Three’, he earned three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals, and was able to become the number one tennis player<\/a> in the world. However, while the top athletes were regularly seen at the same competitions, Andy admits they they were never able to really become friends.<\/p>\n

Although, this isn’t to say that they tennis icons didn’t have a good relationship, as the 38-year-old is now keen to spend more time with his old rivals. Andy, along with Nadal<\/a> and Federer, have now retired from professional tennis, making them no longer competitors in each other’s eyes.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the two-time Wimbledon champion has also grown closer with Djokovic during his retirement, reports the Express.<\/a> Earlier this year he even spent six months coaching the Serbian player.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Stephen Hendry’s Cue Tips, Andy opened up about his relationship with the Big Three, saying that he now wants the opportunity to meet up with them socially. While he was never that close with his rivals, he did share that he enjoyed practising with them.<\/p>\n

\"AndyWhile they couldn’t be friends at the top of the game, Andy hopes they could now meet socially.(Image: Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Andy explained: “I would practice with them, I\u2019d practice with Djokovic and Nadal. When I first started, I would practice with Federer. But after a year or two, he stopped, he wouldn\u2019t practice with me anymore. He never practised with Djokovic or Nadal, I think because he considered them to be a competitor.”<\/p>\n

This seems to be a common practice for some top competitive athletes, as seven-time snooker world champion Hendry said: “I would never socialise with any of the players, this is when I was at the top.”<\/p>\n

Andy went on to add: “I like practising with them just because it gave me the chance to see where my game was at. I wouldn\u2019t practice with them a couple of days before a big match, but a couple weeks out from a major tournament, then I would practice with those guys.”<\/p>\n

However, this companionship while practising didn’t make it away from the court as Andy confessed that he struggled to form friendships with players that he competed against at the top of the game.<\/p>\n

The Scot added: “I was never going for dinner with them. Whereas now I\u2019d love to do that, see them a few times socially.<\/p>\n

“Generally, if I\u2019m socialising with friends and family, you want to feel like you can tell them if you\u2019re struggling with something. But if you\u2019re competing against them, you wouldn\u2019t do it.”<\/p>\n

And it seems that Andy isn’t the only player keen on meeting up, as Djokovic has often said that he would like to grab a drink with Federer and Nadal and reflect on their battles throughout the years.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the 24-time Grand Slam winner said: “I would like to [reflect on my career], but I think that\u2019s going to come probably when I set the racket aside and I sip a margarita on the beach with Federer and Nadal and just reflect on our rivalry and everything.”<\/p>\n

Looking at their stats, Andy did better competing against Federer<\/a> than he did against the two other members of the Big Three.<\/p>\n

Of the 25 meetings the Dunblane man had with Federer, Andy won 11 of them. Whereas, he won 11 out of 36 against Djokovic and seven out of 24 when playing against Nadal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Murray admitted he now wants to be able to meet up with his championship rivals ‘socially’ after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[5233,4295,4296,13325,79,196114,1068,16,15,5068],"class_list":{"0":"post-635549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-andy-murray","9":"tag-novak-djokovic","10":"tag-rafael-nadal","11":"tag-roger-federer","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-stephen-hendry","14":"tag-tennis","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wimbledon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115727960439420466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635549","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=635549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}