"Only one who attacked Rafael Nadal's forehand" - Andrea Petkovic reveals uncle Toni's pick between Djokovic & Federer as Spaniard's biggest rival

Rafael Nadal once famously said that for him, Roger Federer is his greatest rival despite having played the most matches against Novak Djokovic and the Serbian himself calling Nadal his greatest rival.

What makes that proclamation interesting is what his uncle and long-time coach Toni Nadal thinks of the whole matter. Former player Andrea Petkovic shed light on that in a conversation with Rennae Stubbs on the latter's podcast (via Tennis 365), where she shared an anecdote of what Toni Nadal himself told her about their rivalry.

“It is interesting because I talked to Toni Nadal and he said Novak [is the greatest player Nadal faced] and he said the reason for that is Novak sees the ball like nobody else. He is the only one who attacked Rafa’s forehand."

Nadal and Djokovic played many matches against each other, with the number being 60 official matches. Djokovic won 31 of those compared to Nadal's 29, and part of that is simply how good he was.

Very few players have ever been able to counter Nadal as well as Djokovic has been able to, and Toni Nadal even provided an example of why it was possible for Djokovic to do so. After getting to play him a couple of times, Djokovic simply adjusted, and that was because he had the 'best eyes' in tennis.

“He gave an example. He said the first few times Novak tried to take Rafa’s forehand on the rise with his backhand and mistimed it a few times and was late on it. Then in the third match he had perfect timing every time. He said he had the best eyes in tennis.”

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Rafael Nadal's rivalries over his storied tennis career

What made Rafael Nadal proclaim Roger Federer as his greatest rival is simply the timeline of how their careers overlapped. Both of them are a bit older than Novak Djokovic and were already established players by the time the Serbian came into the sport.

Nadal and Federer had also battled each other a couple of times by the time Djokovic announced his arrival, and there was an element of media romanticization of their rivalry. It was the perfect rivalry in many ways, and both Nadal and Federer bought into that.

Over the years, they also grew quite close off the court, which didn't happen with Djokovic even though they played lots of times as well. Djokovic even famously acknowledged that he respects both of them a lot but doesn't consider them friends while Nadal and Federer have built a close friendship over the years.