Rafael Nadal Explains Reason For ‘Good Relationship’ With Roger Federer

Rafael Nadal opened up about his relationship with Roger Federer and made it clear that he is not chasing the Swiss ace’s records.

Nadal and Federer are arguably the two greatest players of the current era, having eclipsed all the previous records during their dominance at the top of the game for over a decade.

The Swiss maestro is widely considered the greatest player of all time owing to his achievements — 20 men’s singles Grand Slam titles, most consecutive weeks as the world number one and second on the list of all time ATP singles titles among others.

The Spaniard has 16 men’s singles Grand Slam titles to Federer’s 20 major titles, and is considered the greatest clay court player ever owing to his 10 French Open titles and 46 other titles on his favorite surface.

But when you compare the two greats, Federer comes out on top owing to his higher number of titles. Nadal is fourth on the list of most number of singles titles, which he recently achieved when he overtook John McEnroe by winning his 78th title at the Italian Open.

Despite the two players being in the latter part of their careers, Nadal, 31, is five years Federer’s junior and is likely to play for a few more years than the Swiss ace. This has seen a number of former players back him to catch Federer and possibly surpass the latter at least in the race for most Grand Slam titles.

Nadal, however, is not concerned about catching Federer and insists that he is focusing on his own career. He believes that both players have achieved greatness in their own right.

“It's not a competition with Federer. For me Federer has his own career, I have my own, Federer is fantastic for all the things he did and I think me too,” Nadal said, refuting claims he is chasing Federer’s record, as quoted by Tennis World USA. “We were good to keep a good relationship with each other.”

Nadal and Federer have faced each other 38 times in their career and a number of the clashes have been in major finals. They are still battling at the top of the ATP men’s singles ranking with both the players having held the number one spot on two occasions this season.

The Spaniard is currently the world number one and has to defend his title at the French Open to do so. Despite their long standing rivalry, the two have maintained a close relationship off the court and Nadal revealed why that was the case between the two greats of the game.

“It's true that we played in many very important situations for both, (made up) of pressure, but the most important thing is that we understood that at the end it's a game,” the Spaniard added.