Novak Djokovic dropped a huge praise on Rafael Nadal after their Wimbledon semi-final.
The Serb, who prevailed on Saturday 10-8 in the fifth set, said: ‘He’s probably the greatest fighter ever to play this game. I mean, he battles every single point like it’s his last.
That’s something that is so impressive with Rafa. That’s what makes him so difficult to beat on any surface. You come into the match against him, knowing that you have to earn your points, is already an energy-spending moment.
So you have to be ready for it, obviously. That’s why you put in X amount of hours on the practice court, preparation, trying to be as professional as you can, because you need to compete with a guy like Nadal. He does the same.
If you want to be able to compete on such a high level, eventually get a win against him in the big tournaments, then you have to give it all you got.’
Djokovic was also proud for his physical resistance: ‘I have to be grateful for my body and to my body, honestly. I mean, we take things for granted sometimes. So I try to take care of my body.
All my life, I’ve been really trying to be aware of my body, my mind and everything, work on getting myself to the optimal shape so I can do these kind of elastic things on the court.
Yeah, it was one of those moments where I think time stopped for me. Match point, I saw him coming in, I played a relatively solid shot.
It was a moment of decision making for him knowing whether he was going to go for a dropshot or just smack the backhand.
When I saw him changing the grip, I started running. But the dropshot was just too good. I was too far away.
But I did try to, like, in ‘Space Jam,’ with Michael Jordan, when he was trying to stretch, that’s probably something that comes to my mind to describe it.’
