Roger Federer has named his toughest tennis opponent of all time and admits he ‘struggled’ when playing against him on the ATP Tour.
Swiss legend Federer entered retirement in 2022 after playing his final professional event at the team-based Laver Cup in London.
Federer, one of the most loved players in the history of the sport, hung up his racket with an incredible tally of 20 Grand Slam singles titles.
The 43-year-old clinched the Wimbledon singles trophy eight times – most recently in 2017 – which is an all-time record at the iconic tournament.
During his superb career, Federer enjoyed an enthralling rivalry with Rafael Nadal and he has confirmed the Spaniard was his hardest opponent ever.
At the 2022 Laver Cup, Federer said: ‘Just with his lefty silly spin to my backhand – [it] has been a challenge for me to say the least.’
Speaking in New York the following year, Federer added: ‘I struggled against Rafa the most. Yeah, just because of his topspin and [him being a] lefty, you know.’
Nadal and Federer, collectively dubbed ‘Fedal’, locked horns 40 times on the ATP Tour, with nine of those meetings coming in major finals.
‘We shared a lot of important things together, no?’ Nadal said in June 2022. ‘I think in some way all the things that we achieved, [it is] difficult to think about tennis in the last 15, 20 years without thinking about the rivalry that we have.
‘Because we have been playing in every big stadium, not in New York, that’s the only thing that bothers me a little bit, that we never played in New York.
‘But in the rest of the most important events of the world, we shared the court, fighting for the most important things.’
Nadal joined Federer in retirement earlier this year after playing his last professional match at the Davis Cup Finals.
Federer wrote an emotional letter to Nadal when the Spanish hero confirmed that he was brining his career to end.
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