Novak Djokovic: Friendship with Federer and Nadal Was a Farce, and I am Not an Anti-Vaxxer

The cover of the Italian newspaper with Novak Djokovic / Twitter

Brutal disclosure. Novak Djokovic was in charge of recognizing that the friendship of the famous Big 3 of tennis, which formed at the time the Serbian, Roger Fededer and Rafael Nadal was an absolute farce.

The Serbian tennis player, who next Monday -when the ATP world ranking is updated- will lose number one to Carlos Alcaraz, made the explosive statements in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, from Milan.

The Big 3, who marked an era in world tennis and recognized that, despite having a “cordial” and “admiring” relationship with them, they have not established a “friendship” by being rivals on the court.

“Federer and I have never been friends. Between rivals it is not possible, but we have never been enemies. I have always had respect for him, he was one of the greatest tennis players of all time. It had an extraordinary impact, but I’ve never been close to him,” he confessed, adding that “Nadal and I are two Geminis, at first we even went to dinner together.”

“Even with him (for Nadal) friendship is impossible. I have always respected and admired him greatly. Thanks to him and Federer I grew up and became who I am today. This will unite us forever. Nadal is part of my life, in the last fifteen years I have seen him more than my mother”, continued Novak Djokovic, who does not consider himself an “anti-vaccine” due to the Covid-19 issue, but someone who fights for the right to free choice.

“95 percent of what has been written and said on television about me in the last three years is completely false. I am not an anti-vaxxer and I have never said that I was. I am pro-choice: I stand for freedom of choice. It is a fundamental human right to be free to decide what things to inject into the body and what not,” he explained.

In addition, he told what it was like to be detained in Australia for not being vaccinated. “I was in a prison. I couldn’t open a single window. I stayed less than a week, but I met young people and war refugees who had been there for a long time.” Djokovic lived through the Balkan war firsthand, when he was just a child.