World number eight Roger Federer said that his relationship with rival Novak Djokovic has always been good despite news that stating otherwise.
“The press hypes a lot of things up because they want top players to hate each other, but my relationship with Novak is good,” Federer said. “We’ve had a tough and fierce rivalry at times but away from the court we are friendly and do a lot of things together, like charity.”
The Swiss star also understands Djokovic’s decision to skip the Davis Cup competition this weekend to recuperate.
“We were all hoping Djokovic would be here, but we understand that he has good reasons not to be and we all know how much he has done for his country,” said Federer. “It would have been more exciting and more difficult for us but what we have to do now is take this opportunity to try to win the tie.”
The Swiss team, led by Federer and Australian Open 2014 champion Stanislas Wawrinka, won the tie on Saturday after sweeping the depleted Serbian team 3-0 and will progress the quarterfinals slated this April.
