Novak Djokovic has shed light on his relationship with Rafael Nadal after beating the Spaniard in the second round of the Olympics.
Nadal has arguably been Djokovic’s biggest rival and Tuesday’s match was their 60th meeting.
Although their careers have been so intertwined, the Serb later confessed that he hadn’t been able to “connect” with the 38-year-old.
I think there is no brotherhood really. It’s more rivalry, colleagues, respecting each other, appreciating each other’s careers and what we have achieved and brought to the sport,” Djokovic said after beating Nadal 6-1 6-4.
Explaining why they couldn’t be friends, the 24-time Grand Slam champion continued: “It’s tough to be close, honestly. [We’re] greatest rivals and you don’t want to maybe give insights into your life or the way you feel and stuff because that can maybe expose you and stuff.
I guess that’s one of the reasons why we didn’t connect so close and I don’t think at that level you can really connect so close to anybody really.
But Djokovic is leaving the door open for a friendship when they have both retired. He added: “But who knows? When the career ends for both of us, it’s a long life hopefully for both of us, we’re both family people and hopefully we can address the different side of the relationship and reflect on things that we went through together, that we lived together, the special moments, in a different way.”
For now, the world No. 2 wants to prolong his professional relationship with Nadal by facing off at least one more time before the ends of their respective careers. “Of course it can be but we don’t know that,” he replied when asked whether his Olympics win over Nadal could have been their last match.
It really depends on many different factors, it depends on whether both of us will keep going and whether we’re going to participate in the same tournaments or not. I think we both want to play in the Grand Slams and the biggest tournaments.
I don’t know, we’ll probably be very selective, I can speak on my behalf, I’ll be very selective with the tournaments I play. I just hope for the sake of our rivalry and the sport in general that we’ll get to face each other once or maybe a few times, different surfaces in different parts of the world because I feel like it can only benefit the sport.
“But as I said, I don’t know how he feels in his body, what his plans are, let’s hope we can play some more. I hope we’re going to play more because every match is like a present, to us and to the sport itself.
