Eight-ranked Roger Feder of Switzerland has hinted that his current relationship with top-ranked Rafael Nadal is not what it seems to be in an interview that he had with TennisEarth.com.
“I’m not sure how close we are as friends. I’ll be interested how much we’ll stay in touch once everything is said and done and we’re off the circuit. We’re not going to dinner, if you know what I mean,” he said.
The 32-year old has had a number of matches against Nadal which formed one of the most memorable rivalries in tennis history. Nadal has a 23-10 head to head series lead over Federer with their last encounter taking place at the Australian Open 2014 semifinals where the Spaniard won.
Federer is showing signs of a comeback in 2014 with a title victory at the ATP 500 Dubai Tennis Championships last weekend with a victory over Tomas Berdych. Federer defeated defending champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
Nadal is closing in on the Grand Slam singles title haul record currently held by Roger Federer at 17. The Mallorcan currently has 13 and was on the verge of securing his 14th Grand Slam title in Melbourne before he was defeated by Stanislas Wawrinka in the Australian Open final.
“We’re almost too nice to each other sometimes,” Federer told TennisEarth.com. “I don’t want to say today’s players
are too soft, but it’s good when players go after each other a bit.”
