"That's the beautiful thing" - Rafael Nadal opens up about Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer pushing him to the limit throughout his career

Rafael Nadal recently opened up about his rivalry with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer throughout his career. He said that Djokovic and Federer consistently pushed him to the limit and challenged him to perform at his best.

Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer are widely considered the greatest tennis players of all time. All three have held the World No.1 ranking, amassed numerous titles, secured Olympic gold medals for their respective countries, and achieved other remarkable feats. While Nadal boasts of winning 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Djokovic has 24, and Federer has 20 to his name.

The Swiss bid farewell to the sport two years ago at the 2022 Laver Cup, while the Spaniard recently announced that he will hang up his racket after representing Spain in the knockout stages of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.

Currently, Rafael Nadal is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to compete in the '6 Kings Slam,' an exhibition tennis tournament. The event will also feature players like Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune, Carlos Alcaraz, and Jannik Sinner

During an interview with DAZN Sport, the 22-time Grand Slam champion was asked about the prospect of facing Djokovic again at the exhibition tournament. In response, he quipped that he has faced the Serb plenty of times in his career and that he doesn't need to face him again.

The 38-year-old said that playing against the Serb has always been a "challenge," and he's someone with whom he has shared a great rivalry and has always pushed him to his limit throughout his career.

"Well we play plenty of times, we don't need to play again (laughs). But it has always been a big challenge and a great rivalry . He's a player who has been always pushing me at the highest level, going through the limits . I think that's the same feeling that we have between each other," he said [0:37].

Nadal also stated that he and Djokovic along with Federer have always pushed each other to their limits to perform their best.

"Both of us with Roger [Federer], we push ourselves to the next level because the opponent in front has always been very strong and we need to be all the time improving, improving and improving to be able to keep competing at the level that we needed to keep having success," he added [0:59].

The Spaniard also stated that he has enjoyed competing against Djokovic and Federer and that he always had the clear goal of getting better and better so that he could triumph over them.

"Of course! I mean that's the beautiful thing about sports. We always have the clear goal and determination to be better and better and better and having big opponents in front, that gives you a more clear perspective about how you have to make this done," he said [1:26].

A look into Rafael Nadal's performance against Novak Djokovic & Roger Federer at the Grand Slam tournaments

Rafael Nadal at the French Open [Source: Getty]

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have faced each other a total of 60 times on the ATP tour and of those matches, the former emerged victorious in 29. They both have faced each other 18 times at the Grand Slam stages.

They faced each other twice at the Australian Open, with Djokovic winning both encounters. At the Wimbledon championships, they faced each other thrice with the Spaniard managing to secure one win.

At the French Open, the 22-time Grand Slam champion faced Novak Djokovic a staggering 10 times and won eight of those encounters. At the US Open, they clashed three times, with the Spaniard winning two of those encounters.

On the other hand, Rafael Nadal has faced Roger Federer 40 times on the ATP tour and won 24 of those matches. They met 14 times at the Grand Slam tournaments, with four encounters coming at the Australian Open where Nadal secured victory three times.

At Wimbledon, the 38-year-old faced Federer four times and only won once, while at the French Open, he went up against the Swiss six times and emerged victorious in all those encounters. Interestingly, the two never faced each other at the US Open.