Swiss tennis great Roger Federer says he didn’t give Novak Djokovic the respect he deserved during the early stages of their rivalry.
The former world No.1 played Djokovic a staggering 50 times on the Tour over 14 years with the Serbian winning 26 of those meetings. They clashed five times in a Grand Slam final with Djokovic winning all of those matches. Both players have secured their places in the tennis history books through the achievements they have made.
However, Federer initially didn’t think Djokovic was going to be such a force in the sport during the early stages of their career. Speaking on his upcoming documentary Federer: Twelve Final Days, he believes there were a lot of flaws in his game to begin with.
“I played him in Monaco the very first time [Federer won 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in 2006] and I walked off the court and thought,‘Yeah, he’s OK’, The Telegraph quoted Federer as saying.
“Even though there was some hype around him, I wasn’t really fully convinced. I think I didn’t give Novak the respect he deserved because of his technical flaws. I felt like Novak had a very extreme forehand grip and his backhand for mewasn’t as fluid as it is nowadays. But then he ironed those things out super well and became an unbelievable monster of a player.”
Djokovic has gone on to become the most decorated Grand Slam champion in the history of men’s tennis with 24 titles to his name. He has also held the ATP No.1 ranking for more weeks than any other player in ATP history and is the only person to have won all nine Masters 1000 events since the series began in 1990.
Djokovic, who is the youngest player out of the Big Three (including Rafael Nadal), hasn’t always had it easy when it came to winning over fans for various reasons. One of which Federer believes was due to some seeing him as a ‘gate-crasher’ to what was at the time a blossoming rivalry between Federer and Nadal.
“I guess he was the party crasher of Rafa and Roger fans,” he said.
“There was a lot of Rafa-Roger love there, so when Novak came probably a lot of people said, ‘Look, we don’t need a third guy. We’re happy with Roger and Rafa’.
“The Federer fans at the beginning didn’t really like him because they just thought, ‘Roger’s a bit more easy, he does it with ease’. Then Novak came in with his strong personality and that unbelievable grit of wanting to win at all costs. I think also Novak was triggered by the relationship with the fans. I think that deep focus maybe scared some people away.
“I think he’s been a little bit misunderstood. I look past the media and I see at the end the man he is. If I take away his game, who is he? What are his values? I know he cares very deeply about his family.”
Federer, who will turn 43 in August, retired from professional tennis in 2022 at the Laver Cup. His upcoming documentary is set to be released next Monday on Amazon Prime.
