He shared many great memories with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on court and Roger Federer has nothing but good wishes for his two great rivals ahead of the 2024 season. The trio formed the Big Three in tennis for the past two decades, but Federer retired last year while Nadal missed nearly the entire 2023 season due to a hip injury.
Djokovic, meanwhile, dominated this year as he won three of the four Grand Slams to move to a record-extending 24 majors while he also finished as the year-end No 1, passing the 400-week milestone for most weeks spent at the top of the ATP Rankings in the process.
But the dust has started to settle on the 2023 season with eyes now turning to the next campaign with Nadal set to make his long-awaited comeback in January The 2024 campaign is likely to be Nadal’s final year as a professional tennis player, which will no doubt be a blow for tennis as a whole.
Djokovic, on the other hand, will look to continue to remain at the top of the game and the tennis legend from Serbia has made it clear that he has no intention of retiring just yet, something that Federer welcomes.
During a recent sponsorship interview, 20-time Grand Slam winner Federer was asked about his two biggest rivals and replied: “I was really happy and fortunate to play against them almost 40 to 50 times each so I have a lot of memories from a lot of great matches, battles.
“I have answered questions about them so many times and I can only say the best things about them. It has been great to share the court with them for so many years. “I hope that Rafa can come back very strong next year and I hope that Novak can keep on playing as long as he wants as it is good for the game to have these guys still in the game.”
Nadal, who hasn’t played since January 2023, will make his return at the Brisbane International with the event running from December 31 until January 7. Djokovic will start his 2024 campaign by representing Serbia at the United Cup with the mixed-team event getting underway on December 29.
Both will then take a weeklong training break before the Australian Open gets underway on January 15 and the two tennis greats could face each other as early as the first round as Nadal will not be seeded for the Grand Slam as he used a protected ranking to enter the tournament.
