By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Friday, June 13, 2025
Photo credit: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty
Big 4 champions stood shoulder to shoulder in a poignant and powerful Roland Garros tribute ceremony for Rafa Nadal last month.
Now, Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic is opening the curtain on his relationship with his fellow Big 4 champions.
In a new interview with Slavena Bilića, 24-time major champion Djokovic says while he respects all of his rivals, he’s always gotten along better with King of Clay Rafael Nadal than with Roger Federer. Djokovic said from his perspective their historic battles were professional challenges—not personal grudges.
“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,” Djokovic said. “We fought for the win, and the better player won…
“I’ve never said a single bad word about them and never will. I looked up to them and still do, but I’ve always gotten along better with Nadal.”
Conceding “I was never as loved as Federer and Nadal”, Djokovic said some fans viewed him as an intruder on the Roger-Rafa rivalry and said fan antipathy made him feel “like an unwanted child.”
“I acted and still felt like an unwanted child,” said Djokovic. “I asked myself why that was. It hurt me.
“Then I thought the fans would accept me if I acted differently, but that wasn’t the case either.
“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 No 1’. Many people didn’t like that.”
