Novak Djokovic says he felt like a third wheel in the rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal during the early stages of his career.
In a recent interview with with Slaven Bilic on Failure of Champions, the former world No. 1 opened up about being part of the Big Three, which dominated men’s tennis for more than a decade. Djokovic, who is still playing on the Tour at the age of 38, says he was ‘never loved’ as much as his two rivals and struggled to gain as much support as them among fans. Even though he has gone on to break various records in the sport, including becoming the first man to win 24 Grand Slam titles. He has also held the ATP No. 1 spot for a record 428 weeks.
“I just wanted to be better than them,” Djokovic said about the early stages of the Big Three rivalry.
“I acted and still felt like an unwanted child. I asked myself why that was. It hurt me. Then I thought the fans would accept me if I behaved differently. But that wasn’t the case either.
“I was never as loved as Federer and Nadal because I shouldn’t have been 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.”
Djokovic currently has an Instagram following of 15M and a X following of 15.2M. Forbes ranked him as the second highest-paid tennis player in 2024 behind Carlos Alcaraz with estimated earnings of $37.2 million. $25M of that is said to come from off-court activities.
The Serbian has had to deal with a fair share of criticism during his career, including his decision to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 which resulted in him missing a series of tournaments and a high-profile legal battle with Australian authorities who detained him before deporting him. He was also once defaulted from a match at the US Open for hitting a ball which accidentally hit a lines judge. A player can be defaulted from a match for ball abuse if the umpire believes ‘clear harm’ was caused to the person hit with the ball.
“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 said.
The three tennis heavyweights recently reunited at the French Open where a special ceremony was conducted in honour of Nadal, who retired last year. At the time, they spoke warmly about each other. But does Djokovic have any resentment towards them?
“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 victory, and the better one won.” He said.
Elaborating further, Djokovic admits he connected with the king of clay more than Federer.
“I’ve always respected both him and Federer; 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.” He concluded.
NOTE: Djokovic’s interview was with Slaven Bilic on Failure of Champions and extracts were later published on 20min.ch.
