‘I trained with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – but Roger Federer wouldn’t let me’ | Tennis | Sport

Andy Murray admitted that Roger Federer refused to continue practicing with him while the Scotsman maintained training with Rafael Nadal and  Novak Djokovic. Nicknamed the ‘Big Four’, the tennis icons brought about unprecedented dominance for almost two decades in the sport.

The quartet have a combined 69 Grand Slam titles plus a whopping 392 ATP Tour titles among them. Despite their intense rivalry, they would often share the court in practice but Federer called a halt to it. Discussing friendships he had during his career on Stephen Hendry’s Cue Tips YouTube channel, Murray told his compatriot about his dealings with the trio.

“I would practice with Djokovic and Nadal,” Murray revealed. “When I first started on the tour, I practiced with Federer but after a year or two, stopped. He wouldn’t practice with me anymore and he never practiced with Djokovic or Nadal at all.”

While the 38-year-old admitted he enjoyed practicing with them, their meetings would never result in becoming friendly off the court. “I liked practicing with them because it gave me a chance to see where my game was at,” he added. “Like, I wouldn’t practice with them a couple days before a big match, but a couple of weeks out from a major tournament, then I would practice with those guys. But I was never going for dinner with them, whereas now I’d love to do that.”

While revealing Federer opted not to train with his two greatest rivals, Djokovic and Nadal were more than happy to rally with each other at the Paris Masters in 2019. Having faced each other in an exhibition match in Kazakhstan, the pair they trained together 48 hours later in France.

During the two-hour practice session, the Serbian won a tiebreak after the Spaniard had led 6-4 2-2. Nadal’s former head coach Carlos Moya revealed the pair’s schedule allowed for them to practice.

Admitting he saw no reason why they shouldn’t practice together, the former world No. 1 told the ATP: “I’m not sure if we can see this in any other sport, but here we like to keep things simple.Why couldn’t we practise with Djokovic? We’ve tried on many occasions, but weren’t able to do it due to scheduling issues.”