According to former two-time French Open finalist Robin Soderling, 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic would have beaten current World No. 2 Roger Federer on more occasions, if the two legends of the sport were at their peak.
The Swede rose to No. 4 in the ATP rankings after getting through to consecutive finals at Roland Garros in 2009 and 2010 when he was annihilated by the Swiss maestro and the King of Clay Rafael Nadal respectively.
And Soderling encountered both Federer and Djokovic many times on the men’s circuit during his long 14-year career. But he gave a clear edge to Djokovic if the Serbinator and the 19-time Grand Slam champion met each other during their prime.
In an interview with Tennismash, Soderling said: “I always had tough matches against Roger.
“Playing against Djokovic, Nadal, I could go off the court and feel I played well.
“But against Roger, he just made me play bad. Hm…but if they are both at the top, I think Novak would beat Roger more times than the opposite.
“He moved so well, got so many balls back. That’s really tough for Roger because he might play too fast, he would panic a little bit. But it’s really tough to say.”
In 2017, a number of high profile players including Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray were sidelined due to injuries and Soderling, who was forced to retire from the game due to illness, said that the tennis calendar needed a certain change as the season was way too long.
He said: “There were so many guys that were injured, and tennis can only blame itself for that.
“The season is way too long, it’s not like other sports where you have a three, four-month off-season where athletes can rest and recover.
“In tennis, we have a few weeks in December and that’s it. You start again the day after New Year’s Eve.
“The sport would really benefit from having a longer break.”
