"Just full respect for him" - Novak Djokovic hails Rafael Nadal's consistency and longevity with Spaniard set to drop out of top 10

Novak Djokovic has hailed Rafael Nadal for his metronomic consistency and longevity as the Spaniard is set to leave the top 10 after nearly 18 years.

Djokovic, the World No. 1, endured his first loss of the year on Friday. He went down in straight sets to Daniil Medvedev in the Dubai Tennis Championships semifinals.

Nadal, meanwhile, has not played since injuring his hip in his Australian Open second-round loss to McKenzie McDonald. Not yet ready to return to action, the Spaniard has also pulled out of Indian Wells, where he reached the final last year.

That means Nadal will drop a whopping 2,555 points. And with Taylor Fritz reaching the Acapulco semis, the Spaniard's 912-week top-10 reign will end on March 20.

In his post-match press conference on Friday, Djokovic hailed his arch-rival for his 'incredible consistency' for nearly two decades across surfaces.

"It's incredible consistency," the Serb said. "He has been well-known for that over the years. Yeah, just full respect for him. Just being able to for almost 20 years be in top 10, that's unheard of, honestly. It speaks about the quality of the tennis, just his consistency throughout the year, playing well on all surfaces."

"With the injuries, he had quite a few injuries that took him out from the tour, even sometimes for almost six months, but he still managed to stay there at the top," he added.

Nadal first entered the top 10 on April 25, 2005, and has been there ever since. This is 124 weeks better than the second-longest uninterrupted top-10 reign (Jimmy Connors, 788).

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"I enjoyed playing over the years in Dubai and will keep coming back" - Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic is a five-time Dubai champion, and has reached at least the quarterfinals in each of his 13 appearances at the ATP 500 event.

The reigning Australian Open champion opened his quest for a sixth title with a nervy third-set tiebreak win over Tomas Machac. But he improved as the week went on, reeling off straight-set wins over Tallon Griekspoor and Hubert Hurkacz to romp into the last eight.

Djokovic met his match in Medvedev though, as the Russian snapped his 20-match winning streak.

Nevertheless, Djokovic said that he has enjoyed playing in Dubai and so will 'keep coming back' to play the event:

"I enjoyed playing over the years in Dubai. I'll keep coming back because it's definitely a place where I enjoy spending time, training, playing in front of the great crowd that comes in big numbers."

Novak Djokovic is next expected to be in action during the European claycourt swing.