‘Better Than Me’ – Roger Federer Picked Over Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in an Honest Confession

Russian tennis star, Mikhail Youzhny, was one of the top players in his country over the last two decades. He has been involved in several memorable encounters, particularly against the big three. While he has generated wins over Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, Youzhny has a torrid record against Roger Federer. Recently, he revealed the toughest player he has played against during his career.

Youzhny’s head-to-head record against Federer stands at 17-0. On the other hand, he has managed to win 3 matches against Djokovic out of the 10 played and 4 out of 17 matches against Nadal. As a result, he picked the Swiss maestro over Nadal and Djokovic. Here’s what he said about the same.

What did Mikhail Youzhny say about Roger Federer?

Recently, the 41-year-old Russian star was involved in an interview with ‘Tennis Majors’. During the interview, he talked about various subjects – from his partnership with Canadian star, Denis Shapovalov to Djokovic’s success. Subsequently, he also went on to reveal how he felt playing against the big three.

Talking about this, Youzhny said, “Rafa and Novak were younger than me, so in the beginning it was a bit easier for me to play them. The first matches were really close. As time went on, they improved a lot and it became harder to play them.”

Further, he went on to add, “But for me – and not just me, but for thousands of players – it was really tough to play Roger. We played a lot of times on grass… To be honest, out of all 17 matches, maybe twice, I had a chance to beat him. It’s simple – we played the same style of tennis, but he did everything better than me: his serve was better, my slice didn’t work against him…”

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Youzhny played against Federer at a time when he was at the peak of his career. However, Djokovic has moved far ahead of his rivals as far as the number of Grand Slam victories is concerned. Recently, one such stat proved why Djokovic is far ahead in the GOAT debate.

Djokovic achieves a stunning feat

The Serb capped off the near-perfect 2023 year by winning the ATP Player of the Year award. It was Djokovic’s eighth victory in the last two decades. On the other hand, Federer has managed to lift this trophy five times. Similarly, Nadal has also won this award on five occasions in the last 20 years.

This bewildering stat proves that Djokovic is way ahead of his rivals when it comes to the GOAT debate. Additionally, he isn’t finished yet and hopes to continue his winning run in 2024.

Novak Djokovic begins his season at the United Cup in Australia, which will serve as a warm-up tournament for the Australian Open. It’ll be interesting to see if Djokovic can carry on his brilliant run in the next year.

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