Rafael Nadal Tells Djokovic’s Father To Ask His Son About His Friendship With Rafa

by Tom Gainey | July 30th, 2013, 10:34 am
  • 61 Comments

Rafael Nadal fired back at comments made over the weekend by Novak Djokovic father. Srdjan Djokovic said in an interview that Rafa dropped his friendship with Novak once his son began beating him.

During a meeting with reporters yesterday at DC Inter Manacor, Nadal responded saying, “Djokovic’s father should talk to his son. My relationship with him has always been very good and it still is. I’ve Lost many games with him, and he with me and have never had any problems.”

Nadal is scheduled to fly into Montreal later this week. Then if his body feels well enough he’ll play in Cincinnati.


Some videos from Nadal’s trip to FC Inter Manacor yesterday:


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61 Comments for Rafael Nadal Tells Djokovic’s Father To Ask His Son About His Friendship With Rafa

KRIS Says:

Cat fight, thank God it’s got nothing to do with a woman lol


Giles Says:

Good response Rafa.
The crank should speak to his son before shooting his mouth off! #Ignoramus


Brando Says:

So Rafa’s happy with his relationship with Novak. Novak likely is the same- certainly I doubt he cries himself to sleep at night over it LOL. Look like only Novak’s father has issues on this front. Doubt either Rafa or Nole care about that to be honest.


Giles Says:

Am just wondering whether this interview might indeed spark off some animosity between Rafa and joker in the future. I do hope not. They have enough to contend with on a tennis court.


Giles Says:

Tom Gainey. Thanks for the great embedded videos.
Miss long haired Rafa. Lol


skeezer Says:

Hurry!! Maybe you can some of his leftover hair on ebay!

http://gototennis.com/2010/09/05/fan-girls-snag-locks-of-rafael-nadals-hair/


Giles Says:

^^^ Those were very expensive locks!
#Rafa’sLocksInDemand


Giles Says:

Talking of ebay, here is Pseudofed on twitter :
“Looking on eBay for racquets. Some of the shipping costs are so high! #homeshopping”


Josh39485 Says:

Djokovic’s father should have never opened his mouth. He and Djokovic’s mother unfortunately are not able to display the same level of class that their son does. And now because Novak is the top-ranked men’s tennis player, they have used this as an opportunity to start bad-mouthing the two players whose accomplishments thus far are much more superior to their sons. Jealousy, maybe?


M Says:

Rafa’s no fool. He is always very diplomatic with the media. I think Novak’s dad will think twice before trying to tangle with him again.

Speaking of Novak, he did seem to have his parents’ behavior under control for a minute and a half there. What happened?


Thomas D Says:

Djokovic’s father is a big idiot. And was it not Djokovic’s mother who declared ‘The King is dead!’ after Federer lost to his son at the AO 2008?

He comes out now to try and tarnish the image of 2 champions just because his son is currently on top? And never for once have we heard Roger and Rafa’s families coming out to say anything about other players…

What a low-class family!!!


Wog boy Says:

Because of Fedal bashing, main aspect of interview has been lost, understandably, which is:

http://www.businessinsider.com/novak-djokovic-loan-shark-2013-7

I do ask all of you to tell me:

First: Would you do that for your child ?

Second: Wouldn’t you be proud to have parents like that?

Third: If we change names and put Janowitz instead Djokovic and Janowicz parents instead of Djokovic parents, would you be saying same thing.

Be honest with your answers, honest to yourself not to me because I know the answers.

When it comes to high/low class things, who set the standards what is what and what is Ok to say and do to be one or the another?


Humble Rafa Says:

You are welcome. It’s my pleasure to start up a friendly fight within the family.


Ted Echols Says:

When it comes to high/low class things, who set the standards what is what and what is Ok to say and do to be one or the another?

WBoy
Who sets the standards? The people who destroyed TT and then came over here set the standards.


Wog boy Says:

Ted Echols,

Thanks, I got it.


James Says:

Wog boy, what Novak’s parents have done for him is quite admirable. I’d be happy to have such parents. Novak’s father interview was very good except for the Fedal bashing part. Attacking Nadal and Federer at the same time? Not a good idea. He’s been a good parent to Novak, no doubt, but he also comes across as a bit of an idiot with his comments on Federer and Nadal. These guys are on tour with his son, and his comments are not gonna help Novak get more friends or popularity. Rafa has responded very well to him. There’s gonna be no lack of motivation for Rafa and Roger when they next see Novak across the net on a tennis court. Montreal, Cincy, Flushing Meadows, exciting!


holdserve Says:

Ted echols, do you know why TT went under? Who are the people who destroyed TT?
Sienna and a poster calling himself by several names including JamesDjokovic fan came from Tennis-x and ran amok on TT writing dirty stuff because moderation had ceased as a prequel to the closing of the site. I cannot however hold them responsible for destroying TT. It sank because it did not get adequate sponsorship.
However thanks to Sienna and the other troll’s uncensored stuff, I did not feel bad when TT sank. Otherwise I might have mourned its demise.


holdserve Says:

Wog boy, elsewhere I read your regret about your Dad. I think parents and kids sacrifice a lot for each other but also hurt each other a lot. Most people have regrets about how they behaved as parents toward their kids or how they behaved as kids toward their parents. Your Dad might not have blamed you entirely.
Re Novak’s Dad’s comments, well I suppose it must be awkward for Nole but they did sacrifice a lot for him and his success belongs to them too.
I don’t think Nole will be greatly upset. I don’t think he and Rafa or he and Fed were ever close. So nothing’s lost.
Earlier players used to say bad things about each other. Now they have become diplomatic. But their family says what they don’t say. Adds some color to the colorless.


nadalista Says:

RT @ana_mitric: “@BenRothenberg Coming soon to a Belgrade tabloid: Sam Querrey Responsible for Failure of Serbia Open.”

Priceless!

Quite agree with some comments here, so Djokovic’s Dad has a febrile imagination, so what? He (Novak) wouldn’t be the first person with a colourful relative, no?

#MoveOn


Melba Says:

Djokovic’s parents are always behaving bad. And also commenting at a “no class” level acting like a child. If you are carefully watching how their parents act and react with their sons’ success and accomplishments, you will note just how Djokovic’s parents are showing poor taste, including wearing a T shirt with Novak’s face on it. They are very arrogant compared to Federer’s and Nadal’s parents. The latter’s parents are high class and educated not berating any of their son’s opponent regardless of whether they are winning or losing.


RZ Says:

Love it! That’s as good a response as you could give to this sort of nonsense.

Now I’m kinda hoping Uncle Toni will say something about one of the players, so they can tell him to talk to Rafa. LOL.


Skeezer Says:

@holdserve
Quite disagree with TT demise.
You cannot get sponsorship monies alone on a site that is zealous towards one player and survive. You need to attact all tennis fans. The numbers will not compute into $. By being a one player site, you naturally elbow out the other tennis fans, and its not all about one player.

Btw, your post is contradictory in Itself as to your assumption of why it closed. Read it again.


nadalista Says:

@skeezer, everyone knows your anti-Rafa bias and quite frankly, find it entertaining for the most part, at least I do. Other times, like in your post of 12:48 am, it is just, uhm, a tard tiresome…

Seriously dude, time to come up with different anti-Rafaisms, you can do it………

#OnYourMarks….Go!


Michael Says:

Rafa has hit the nail on the head by asking Srdjan to check with his son instead of imaginging it himself. Ofcourse on court they might exhibit strange mannerisms, fist pumps and a touch of aggression, but offcourt they forget about it and do not forget to congratulate one another. I believe Novak and Rafa are having a good relationship.


nadalista Says:

“Rafa has hit the nail on the head……..”

He’s always doing that, our Rafa. Very, very astute young man.


Skeezer Says:

“Our rafa”….
Nuff said.


nadalista Says:

^^
Cynicism – the last refuge of the disillusioned idealist.


Tennis x hippy chic Says:

Good response from Rafa,Novak lives in Serbia,Roger Switzerland,Rafa Spain,Andy Scotland,so with that in mind,in the short time that they get away from the tour,they are most probably at home with their own families,there is mutual respect that they share,when battling against each other so much,but they are most probably glad of the break from their fellow players,they dont have to live in each others pockets 24/7,im sure many of us on this forum,dont all associate with the people they work with,i know i dont as my work and private life are two seperate things,my two cents.


metan Says:

Please forgive the old man.(nole’s daddy ) we all made mistake!
@ Hippy chic, nole abode is in Montecarlo, fyi.even though he is Serbian.

When will Rafa go to Montreal?


Tennis x hippy chic Says:

Metan yeah fair enough,but i think your missing my point,which is that they all live in different parts of the world,and have lives which are poles apart from each others,as regards Montreal he goes there towards the end of this week i believe to start practising,he could even be there already,as regards on forgiving Noles dad theres nothing to forgive,hes entitled to his own personal opinion,i just think hes gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick,but i certainly dont bear any annymosity towards the guy though.


Giles Says:

metan. Rafa will be travelling to Montreal today.
Vamos Rafa


metan Says:

Thanks hippy chic, point taken.
Giles., thanks for the info.
I will tell my friends there to cheer up Rafa .

Vamos King!!!


holdserve Says:

skeezer the contradiction is only in your mind.
From your earlier posts too I can see you follow some logic of your own. Refer your comments in the thread on doping.


Nativenewyorker Says:

I wanted to come on here and agree with the posts from holdserve at 11:31 pm and nadalista at 1:01 am regarding the demise of TT. Those of us who posted there for quite some time would be the logical ones to know what went on there.

I really dislike anyone taking cheap shots at TT or the people who posted there. To say that it was only a Rafa fan site is a real disservice to both Ricky Dimon and Cheryl Murray who blogged on the site. They always welcomed fans of all players. Anyone who was on that site knows that they appreciated both Fed and Rafa in equal measure.

I don’t know what someone like Ted Echols feels the need to revisit what went on at TT. The fact is that there were financial problems that caused the site to close down. That comes straight from the people who blogged on the site.

I really wish that some would stop with this endless propaganda about TT and the people who posted there. We had fans of all the top players and some who liked others in the top ten or top twenty.

We were there to talk all things tennis. It was a great experience with real fans of the sport. I wanted to try to post here about tennis, but if some persist in trying to spew out erroneous propaganda about the site on which we used to post, then it’s going to be really difficult.


Margot Says:

^ Agree.


holdserve Says:

If Nole wants to be loved like Roger, Rafa and Andy, he should try being genuine. Roger, although arrogant and smug, is genuine. Rafa is humble and genuine and so is Andy.
But not Nole. Right from day 1, he has seemed a fake to onlookers. Creating a big drama over injuries and exhaustion, then running like a rabbit.
He is gracious as a loser but intolerable as a winner, behaving in the most disgusting manner.His over the top celebrations again make me think his grace as a loser is fake.
In 2011, he first claimed that it was his gluten free diet that was responsible for his transformation, then he denied it and talked about an egg.Then denied that too. All those contradictory statements made me think he is hiding something.

Now he writes a book about his diet. And he tweets asking for recommendations for restaurants in Montreal! Why would somebody on such a strict healthy diet ask for restaurant recommendations?


Giles Says:

@ holdserve. Agree with everything you say. He is a great actor, should be in Hollywood!!


Bada Bing Says:

Holdserve, why wouldnt he want a restaurant? He just avoids gluten and dairy.


Tennis x hippy chic Says:

I have a couple of friends that are on a gluten free diet for medical reasons,and they have said that they are on it for life,as having both dairy and gluten made them ill,and it wasnt till the doctor ran tests because something wasnt quite right that this was found out,so its not a diet that you can play fast an loose with ie you cannot just skip a day because you feel like eating a cream cake,otherwise you end up making yourself ill.


Tennis x hippy chic Says:

^woopsie wrong thread^.


Ted Echols Says:

–I really dislike anyone taking cheap shots at TT or the people who posted there–

NativeNewYorker:
The forum was a cesspool. That’s my opinion and you can scroll forward if you don’t like it.

#Have a nice day


nadalista Says:

@Ted Echols says:

“The forum was a cesspool. That’s my opinion…..”

Clearly you enjoyed swimming in it, and you miss it, otherwise you wouldn’t obsess so about it.

That’s my opinion.

#TTIsDead
#MoveOn


WTF Says:

Djoker’s dad has always been a little crazy. There was a serbian tournament where Djoker lost, and his dad later said that the linesmen were not being “patriotic” enough. Unbelievable.


Ted Echols Says:

Native
There’s simply nothing to miss it’s all here now.

#TTcarryover


nadalista Says:

Ted Echols;

Aren’t you the lucky boy then, TT being over here saves you the trouble of going over “there”! Just for you…

Btw, I am not nny, although I take being mistaken for her as a huge compliment..

#TTFetish


Ted Echols Says:

“Btw, I am not nny, although I take being mistaken for her as a huge compliment”

Nadalista/NNY
Never believe a story unless it’s been officially denied.

#TTByOsmosis


nadalista Says:

Ted Echols,

Thanks for the compliment! I can only hope my friend nny does not mind…….

Don’t worry, Ted Echols, in time, you shall get over TT’s passing.In the meantime, you just have to go through all the stages of grief, which may or may not include calling people names they are not.

#YouHaveMySympathies


Ted Echols Says:

” I can only hope my friend nny does not mind…….”

Fair enough, you can have that conversation with yourself then.

#Schizo


nadalista Says:

Ted Echols 3:26pm

Why am I not surprised. Your type can be counted on to resort to petty insults when you start losing in a reasoned argument.

No wonder you enjoyed swimming in the TT sewer!

#Pride
#Ego
#Fear

Good night ol’ chap……


Ted Echols Says:

Good night ol’ chap”

Why thank you NNYdalista. I will have a very wonderful evening.

#Zzzzz


Nativenewyorker Says:

Ted Edhols,

Unfortunately, you seem to be determined to make a cesspool out of this site with your obsessive insults and erroneous comments about TT. Why do you even care? If you have to take about a now defunct tennis site, then you must think it’s really important.

The so-called cesspool or sewer is in your own mind!

Oh and I get to decide if I wish to scroll on past the comments here. Not you.


Nativenewyorker Says:

@nadalista,

Right on sister! This is nothing new. Just more of the same personal attacks and the old game of accusing two people of being one and the same.

That must be all the fun someone like that gets out of life.


nadalista Says:

Touche, nny!

We know the REAL cause of the ennui from the “brother” poster above, don’t we? A certain eye-catching tennis player from Mallorca!

So we can expect more of the same attacks on anything associated with him as long as he is around: his fans, defunct tennis sites, clay, Uncle Toni etc, etc……

Anyhoo, so looking forward to the Montreal draw today…and the tennis next week of course!

Vamos Rafa!


holdserve Says:

Bada Bing, restaurant recommendations are required when you plan to eat the foods they are famous for. When you are taking part in an important tournament, you are on a special diet, you want to be no. 1, is it likely you are going to restaurants to sample their best fare? He will have to get the ingredients examined by his nutritionist/dietician and have the restaurant prepare it with substitute ingredients. Seems pretty far fetched!
Of course he may stick to licorice tea and the restaurant recommendations are for his girl friend or team so he can watch them gorge while he sips his licorice tea or warm water!


Giles Says:

http://alturl.com/iave7
Great article on the “clown’s” comments!!


James Says:

Uncle Toni is an honest man. So is Djokovic’s father (he spoke his mind about Fed and Nadal).


Giles Says:

Uncle T was making a public confession (more fool he) the content of which is old news. As for the “clown” his comments about Fedal just demonstrates his jealousy towards them. His son will never, yes and I say never, be as popular and loved as much as the other two and hence the bitterness and jealousy portrayed in his comments. He should hide under a rock.


Nadalista Says:

Uncle Toni confessed to what he and a lot of coaches n the ATP tour do. Everybody saw Novak’s coach giving him instructions during the RG semi with Rafa. Delpo’s coach, Verdasco’s et al, have all been cited at one time or another, the list goes on. At least the WTA has been honest enough to accept that coaching during matches happens and made it official, leveling the playing field.

I do not agree that Novak’s father was being honest, at least in his assessment of Rafa’s relationship with Novak pre 2011. There is no evidence to suggest Rafa and Novak were best friends pre 2011. Saying Rafa and Novak were best friends before 2011is a figment of his imagination. But then again, cultural differences may be at play here. My understanding of best friends may differ from Papa Djokovic’s.

That Rafa may have cooled towards Novak post 2011 may be true, and who would blame Rafa, given the disrespect Novak showed towards him in victory.


BigFatFan Says:

Question is when do the parents learn how to behave? seeing his acts on the tennis court is more than enough… poor guy.


Kelli Says:

Saw Novak at the press conference at the US Open saying he knows how to play and beat Nadal. It wasn’t what he said but the irritation and attitude as he said it. I have never cared much for him and maybe as someone said above, it’s the lack of being genuine, professional or something that seems to irritate the fans about him. Maybe that’s why daddy started this. Trying to turn the fans against Rafa and Roger. Not sure why Rafa or Roger would be jealous of this man. They are definitely champions in their own right and deservedly so. It’s definitely a ‘daddy’ issue and the jealous seems to be more on their side. This definitely makes for good press and conversation. I am glad a few of them can be professional. Looking forward to the finals at the US Open and Nadal taking the crown again. He definitely should have the #1 ranking for 2013.

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